Communism as the Unhappy Coming

This paper shows that Eastern Orthodox believers are less happy compared with Catholics and Protestants using data covering more than 100 countries around the world. Consistent with the happiness results, the paper also finds that relative to Catho...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Djankov, Simeon, Nikolova, Elena
Format: Working Paper
Language:English
Published: World Bank, Washington, DC 2018
Subjects:
Online Access:http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/303241522775925061/Communism-as-the-unhappy-coming
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29669
id okr-10986-29669
recordtype oai_dc
spelling okr-10986-296692021-06-10T09:02:07Z Communism as the Unhappy Coming Djankov, Simeon Nikolova, Elena EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH CATHOLICS PROTESTANTS ORTHODOXY POLITICAL PREFERENCES COMMUNISTS COMMUNIST DOCTRINE BERDYAEV This paper shows that Eastern Orthodox believers are less happy compared with Catholics and Protestants using data covering more than 100 countries around the world. Consistent with the happiness results, the paper also finds that relative to Catholics, Protestants, and non-believers, those of Eastern Orthodox religion have less social capital and prefer old ideas and safe jobs. In addition, Orthodoxy is associated with left-leaning political preferences and stronger support for government involvement in the economy. Compared with non-believers and Orthodox adherents, Catholics and Protestants are less likely to agree that government ownership is a good thing, and Protestants are less likely to agree that getting rich can only happen at the expense of others. These differences in life satisfaction and other attitudes and values persisted despite the fact that communist elites sought to eradicate church-going in Eastern Europe, since communists maintained many aspects of Orthodox theology which were useful for the advancement of the communist doctrine. The findings are consistent with Berdyaev's hypothesis that communism is a successor of Orthodoxy. 2018-04-12T17:22:56Z 2018-04-12T17:22:56Z 2018-04 Working Paper http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/303241522775925061/Communism-as-the-unhappy-coming http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29669 English Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8399 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo World Bank World Bank, Washington, DC Publications & Research Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Europe and Central Asia Eastern Europe Russian Federation
repository_type Digital Repository
institution_category Foreign Institution
institution Digital Repositories
building World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection World Bank
language English
topic EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH
CATHOLICS
PROTESTANTS
ORTHODOXY
POLITICAL PREFERENCES
COMMUNISTS
COMMUNIST DOCTRINE
BERDYAEV
spellingShingle EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH
CATHOLICS
PROTESTANTS
ORTHODOXY
POLITICAL PREFERENCES
COMMUNISTS
COMMUNIST DOCTRINE
BERDYAEV
Djankov, Simeon
Nikolova, Elena
Communism as the Unhappy Coming
geographic_facet Europe and Central Asia
Eastern Europe
Russian Federation
relation Policy Research Working Paper;No. 8399
description This paper shows that Eastern Orthodox believers are less happy compared with Catholics and Protestants using data covering more than 100 countries around the world. Consistent with the happiness results, the paper also finds that relative to Catholics, Protestants, and non-believers, those of Eastern Orthodox religion have less social capital and prefer old ideas and safe jobs. In addition, Orthodoxy is associated with left-leaning political preferences and stronger support for government involvement in the economy. Compared with non-believers and Orthodox adherents, Catholics and Protestants are less likely to agree that government ownership is a good thing, and Protestants are less likely to agree that getting rich can only happen at the expense of others. These differences in life satisfaction and other attitudes and values persisted despite the fact that communist elites sought to eradicate church-going in Eastern Europe, since communists maintained many aspects of Orthodox theology which were useful for the advancement of the communist doctrine. The findings are consistent with Berdyaev's hypothesis that communism is a successor of Orthodoxy.
format Working Paper
author Djankov, Simeon
Nikolova, Elena
author_facet Djankov, Simeon
Nikolova, Elena
author_sort Djankov, Simeon
title Communism as the Unhappy Coming
title_short Communism as the Unhappy Coming
title_full Communism as the Unhappy Coming
title_fullStr Communism as the Unhappy Coming
title_full_unstemmed Communism as the Unhappy Coming
title_sort communism as the unhappy coming
publisher World Bank, Washington, DC
publishDate 2018
url http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/303241522775925061/Communism-as-the-unhappy-coming
http://hdl.handle.net/10986/29669
_version_ 1764469935992471552