Collaborative Research: Local Government Officials and the Management of Religion-State Relationships

宗教与政府互动的日常管理工作由成千上万的地方官员负责，他们被委托做出影响所有美国公民的决定。这项对地方官员的全国性混合方法研究调查了不同社区的地方政府官员如何理解和管理宗教与国家的关系。该项目旨在帮助公众了解地方官员如何支持多元化并解决当地社区的冲突。该项目制作了一个公共使用的数据集和贸易手册，并支持妇女和未被充分代表的少数民族参与科学。本研究通过大规模调查和对民选官员的深度访谈来探讨宗教与政府的相互作用。该调查对2500名民选和任命的地方官员进行了调查，询问他们对宗教、国家以及两者之间的相互作用的态度和行动。该调查在全国范围内代表了三种政府形式（市、县和学区）和五个治理领域（行政、警务、公共卫生、分区和教育）的官员。该项目还包括对从调查中抽取的150名地方官员进行深度访谈，访谈内容基于他们的（非）宗教信仰和当地背景。定量和定性数据被合并和分析，从而产生方法论报告、公共使用数据集和研究结果。该研究首次提供了地方官员与宗教的互动和宗教偏好的实证描述，并考察了这些宗教-国家偏好是如何受到关键个人因素（信仰、所属团体、背景）和背景（地区、市政规模、当地人口）的影响。最终，这项研究表明，政府官员在宗教问题上往往有充分的自由裁量权，但正式指导有限，他们如何决定如何处理和处理宗教问题，并解决潜在的冲突。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

The day-to-day management of interaction between religion and government falls to hundreds of thousands of local officials, who are entrusted with decisions that impact all American citizens. This mixed-methods, nationwide study of local officials investigates how local government officials, across diverse communities, understand and manage religion-state relations. This project is designed to help the public understand how local officials can support pluralism and resolve conflicts in local communities. The project produces a public-use dataset and trade book, and it supports the participation of women and underrepresented minorities in science.This study addresses the interaction of religion and government through a large-scale survey and in-depth interviews with elected officials. The survey is of 2500 local officials, both elected and appointed, asking about their attitudes and actions regarding religion, the state, and interaction between the two. The survey is nationally representative of officials across three forms of government (municipalities, counties, and school districts) and five governance domains (administration, policing, public health, zoning, and education). The project also includes in-depth interviews with 150 local officials sampled from the survey based on their (non)religiosity and local context. The quantitative and qualitative data are merged and analyzed, resulting in a methodological report, a public-use dataset, and research findings. The study provides the first empirical portrait of local officials’ interactions with and preferences about religion, and it examines how those religion-state preferences are patterned by key individual factors (beliefs, affiliations, background) and contexts (region, municipal size, local demography). Ultimately, the research demonstrates how government officials, who often have ample discretion but limited formal guidance when it comes to religion, make decisions about how to navigate and manage religious questions and resolve potential conflicts.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.