Strategic Extremism: Why Republicans and Democrats Divide on Religious Values
解释为何追求选票最大化的政客会采取极端立场，尤其是在宗教议题上。研究发现，当约一半选民定期参加宗教活动时，宗教议题的政治相关性最高，且极端主义与宗教参与呈非单调关系。
Party platforms differ sharply from one another, especially on issues with religious content, such as abortion or gay marriage. Given the high return to attracting the median voter, why do vote-maximizing politicians take extreme positions? In this paper we find that strategic extremism depends on an intensive margin where politicians want to induce their core constituents to vote (or make donations) and the ability to target political messages toward those core constituents. Our model predicts that the political relevance of religious issues is highest when around one-half of the voting population attends church regularly. Using data from across the world and within the United States, we indeed find a nonmonotonic relationship between religious extremism and religious attendance.