Moral Foundations or Ethical Capture? A Comparative Study of Religion, Democracy, and Institutional Legitimacy in the U.S., U.K., Poland, and Sweden (2000–2025)

Title: Moral Foundations or Ethical Capture? A Comparative Study of Religion, Democracy, and Institutional Legitimacy in the U.S., U.K., Poland, and Sweden (2000–2025)Publication Year: 2025Description:This dataset and companion article analyze the moral and institutional foundations of democratic resilience and decline across four liberal democracies: the United States, United Kingdom, Poland, and Sweden. Drawing on Ronald Dworkin’s distinction between morals (public commitments to justice and fairness) and ethics (private ideals), the study argues that democracy functions best where institutions are grounded in pluralistic moral principles rather than sectarian ethical imposition. Using V-Dem v13 and UNESCO datasets, the study combines panel regression models (n = 5,097) with qualitative legal analysis of constitutional rulings, legislative reforms, and discursive patterns from 2000 to 2025. The results show that rule of law, judicial constraints, and legislative oversight interact to uphold democratic quality (measured by V-Dem’s v2x_polyarchy index). Conversely, when these institutions are weakened—especially via religious nationalism or moral absolutism—democratic erosion accelerates, as seen in Poland and the U.S. Sweden and the U.K. provide contrasting models of resilience, due to their legal formalism, civic trust, and commitment to public morality. The study introduces the concept of ethical capture and presents evidence that backsliding is not merely institutional, but fundamentally moral in character. Keywords: democratic backsliding; moral foundations; ethical capture; rule of law; institutional legitimacy Contents: Dataset: Panel regression inputs (V-Dem v13 variables, case identifiers) Tables (see attached Tables.docx): Regression results (HC3 & clustered SE), VIF diagnostics Full manuscript: Abstract, theoretical framework, methods, results, and case studies AI usage disclosure (GPT-4 used for drafting, citation formatting, and copyediting) License: [Specify appropriate license, e.g., CC-BY 4.0] Funding: [Optional—e.g., “This research received no specific grant from any funding agency.”]