Part I: Introductory Considerations and Research Setting -- 1. Introduction -- 2. Research Setting -- Part II: Conceptual Framework -- 3. The Outcome (Criterion Variables) -- 4. Diagnosing Corruption and Prosperity in Europe and the Americas (A) -- 5. Conditions (Predictor Variables): Theories Explaining Prosperity Differences (B), (C), (D), (E) -- Part III: Theoretical Foundations -- 6. Corruption and Religion (A), (B), (1) -- 7. Prosperity and Religion (A), (B), (1) -- 8. Institutions, Corruption/Prosperity, and Religion (A), (B), (D), (1), (3), (6) -- 9. Education, Religion, and Corruption/Prosperity (A), (B), (C), (1), (2) -- 10. Culture, Religion, and Corruption/Prosperity (A), (B), (C), (1), (2) -- 11. Language and Religion -- 12. Environment/Geography and Prosperity/Transparency (E), (4), (7) -- Part IV: Research Paradigms, Methodology, and Research Design -- 13. Applied Research Paradigms -- 14. Methodology -- Part V: Empirical Results -- 15. Component 1 (Macro): Quantitative (Regression) Analysis -- 16. Component 2 (Meso): Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) -- Part VI: Component 3 (Micro) -- 17. Case Selection Criteria, Methods, and Data Treatment -- 18. a) Switzerland: Extreme Positive Case Study (Worldwide) -- 19. b) Uruguay: Extreme Positive Case Study (Latin America) -- 20. c) Cuba: A Sui Generis Case Study (Communist proxy) -- 21. d) Colombia: Extreme Negative Case Study -- 22. Summary Overview of the Four Case Studies -- Part VII: Discussion and Conclusions -- 23. Integrative Conclusions -- 24. Other Considerations -- 25. Concluding Remarks.

Open Access

Why are historically Catholic countries and regions generally more corrupt and less competitive than historically Protestant ones? How has institutionalization of religion influenced the prosperity of countries in Europe and the Americas? This open access book addresses these critical questions by elucidating the hegemonic and emancipatory religious factors leading to these dissimilarities between countries. The book features up-to-date mixed methods from interdisciplinary research contributing to existing studies in the sociology of religion field by demonstrating—for the first time—the effect of the mutually reinforcing configuration of multiple prosperity triggers (religion–politics–environment). It demonstrates the differences in the institutionalization of Roman Catholicism and Protestantism by applying quantitative and qualitative methods and by performing a qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) of 65 countries. The author also provides a comprehensive survey and results of empirical research on different theories of development, focusing on the influence of religion.