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

宗教和政府之间互动的日常管理落到了数十万地方官员的肩上，他们被委托做出影响所有美国公民的决定。这项针对地方官员的全国性研究采用了多种方法，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之间的关系。该项目旨在帮助公众了解地方官员如何支持多元化和解决当地社区的冲突。该项目制作了一本公共使用的数据集和贸易手册，并支持妇女和代表性不足的少数群体参与科学。这项研究通过大规模调查和对当选官员的深入采访，阐述了宗教和政府之间的相互作用。这项调查对2500名地方官员进行了调查，包括选举和任命的官员，询问他们对宗教、国家以及两者之间的互动的态度和行动。这项调查具有全国代表性，涵盖了三种政府形式(市、县和学区)和五个治理领域(行政、治安、公共卫生、分区和教育)的官员。该项目还包括对150名地方官员的深入访谈，这些官员是从调查中抽取的，基于他们(非)宗教信仰和当地背景。对定量和定性数据进行合并和分析，形成方法学报告、公共使用数据集和研究结果。这项研究首次对地方官员与宗教的互动和对宗教的偏好进行了实证描述，并考察了这些宗教国家偏好是如何根据关键的个人因素(信仰、从属关系、背景)和背景(地区、市政规模、当地人口统计)形成的。最终，这项研究展示了政府官员如何就如何导航和管理宗教问题以及解决潜在冲突做出决定。政府官员在涉及宗教问题时通常有足够的自由裁量权，但有限的正式指导。这一裁决反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势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.