I mentioned the Mercatus Center Global Prosperity Initiative Journalism Fellows a while back. GPI has now posted dispatches from the field from the intrepid fellows. Matt Welch in Romania. Melinda Ammann in Botswana. Mark Hemingway in Philippines. These aren't formal articles. They're dispatches. So they're breezy and chatty, which to my mind makes them even better reading.
GPI Field Dispatches
Will Wilkinson 
Religious and secular voters differ no more in America than in France, Germany, Sweden, and many other European countries.
Isn’t this misleading, since there are far fewer religious voters in France, Germany, and Sweden than there are in the US? Religion itself may not be more divisive in the US than it is in other places, but as a divisive factor it’s effects are far greater, no?
Nicole,
Yes, good point. We’re comparing religious to non-religious, but to the extent that there are fewer religious attenders in, say, Sweden,religious can be a less important factor there in total. On the other hand, if there are big differences between how religious and non-religious people vote, this presumably represents a potentially important issue in a country (just as, for example, gay rights is important in the U.S. even though only a small proportion of Americans are gay). In any case, I’m happy to discuss this further on Thursday…
I’m Boris Shor, and a coauthor on the book, and I’ll be at the event as well. By the way, the link to our web site is broken … it’s http://www.redbluerichpoor.com
Thanks for the heads up…Book Army loves a good author talk.
I just love reading this blogs & articles. It is very interesting.
Cheers,
healthcampus.net