Does economic development cause a decline in religiosity ? Explaining the separation of Church and State in France in 1905

This article provides a test of the secularization hypothesis, which argues that economic growth, industrialization, increased literacy and decreasing fertility depress religiosity. It focuses on the elections of the secular politicians who voted in favor of the separation between Church and State in the French Parliament in 1905. If the secularization hypothesis is correct, these secular politicians should have been elected in the most developed areas in France at the turn of the twentieth century. Against the predictions of the secularization hypothesis, we find that the support for secular politicians originated in the rural areas of France.