Ibrahim Enes Atac, Lena Kunjan, Forrest Lovette, Samuel L. Perry
Research on government spending focuses primarily on the roles of partisanship, ideology, and in-group self-interest. Beyond these, the authors propose that religiopolitical schemas have an independent (though interrelated) role in shaping Americans’ conceptions of government’s purpose, beneficiaries, and resource allocation. Conceiving of “Christian nationalism” as a religiopolitical schema rooted in “us versus them” hierarchical conceptions of social order and neoliberal ideas of government, the authors theorize Christian nationalism is associated with greater American support for government spending on controlling and punishing problematized populations, less spending on vulnerable populations and out-group interests, and no systematic preference when the in-group or out-group interest is less salient. Data from the 2021 General Social Survey affirm these expectations. Even after accounting for partisanship, ideology, and White victimhood, Christian nationalism is associated with support for greater government spending on crime, law enforcement, and the military and less spending on Blacks, safety nets, science, the environment, and other Democratic issues but is unrelated to spending on parks, highways, social security, and other areas in which in-group distinctions are less salient. Interactions reveal that Christian nationalism is more strongly associated with views on government spending among non-Republicans and nonconservatives. The authors discuss how Christian nationalist rhetoric is associated with spending priorities that reflect inequalities across multiple domains.