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Fearful Reformers

The Institutionalization of the Christian Right in American Politics

University of Kentucky, Lexington

Nathan Myers

Ashland University, Ohio

This research article analyzes the ways that the Christian right uses fear as an instrument in the politics of education. The main source of data for this analysis draws from source-protected interviews with directors in state-level Christian right organizations. A semistructured, elite interviewing approach was used. The authors reframe the debate in the scholarly literature over whether fear is used disingenuously or whether it has a rational basis in the belief systems of the Christian right. Instead, the authors address how the Christian right's political power became institutionalized in recent decades through interest groups, policy entrepreneurs, advocacy coalitions, and national political party alliances. Finally, the article evaluates the role that fear continues to play as both a belief and a tactic as the Christian right has moved into the political mainstream.

Key Words: interest group politics • religious right • schooling • institutionalization

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