In writings about politics or government, there are many words that typically engender capitalization confusion. The grammar rule is proper nouns are capitalized. This means that the word must refer to a specific person, place, or thing to be capitalized. For instance,
- A congress is a gathering of people, but Congress is the specific legislature for the US government.
- A republican supports representative government, but a Republican identifies with or is a member of the Republican party.
- A democrat supports democracy, but a Democrat identifies with or is a member of the Democratic party.
- An independent is not a member of any political party and should not be capitalized.
- A constitution is any document establishing a form of government. The Constitution refers to a specific document, such as the US Constitution.
Other examples of nouns that refer to a specific thing include First Amendment, Founding Fathers, World War I, and Ground Zero. Adjectives are not capitalized (unless they begin a sentence). This is why you do not capitalize words like presidential or congressional. The names of social movements are proper nouns, therefore, capitalize Civil Rights Movement, Labor Movement, and Christian Right.
Among political scientists, there are a number of human characteristics that are frequently studied, such as age, gender, race, religion, and political party identification. Deciding whether to capitalize the categories in these characteristics frequently encounters much confusion. Male, female, young, and old are adjectives, not nouns, and thus, should not be capitalized.
Race
Specific races or nationalities, such as Swedish, Native American, Latino, or African American are capitalized. There is some debate, however, about whether “black” and “white”, when referring to race, should be capitalized. When there is inconsistency in the use of capitalization, you must decide which to use. Be cognizant of your audience and, if there is a preferred usage, go with that. Above all, be consistent. Do not switch back and forth between capitalizing and not capitalizing a word with a debatable capitalization rule.
Religion
Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Christian, Protestant, Catholic, and Pentecostal refer to specific religious groups and are capitalized. Mainline, evangelical, and charismatic are generally used as adjectives to describe religious groups, such as evangelical Christian. So, you would not capitalize them. Unless, of course, you intend to use it as a proper noun. This is why some authors choose to capitalize evangelical.
You can refer to a god, as in any supernatural being, or you can use God as a proper noun, referring to the name of that supernatural being. Also, it does not matter whether you believe in the existence of God or not, proper nouns are capitalized. I do not believe in the existence of Santa Clause or Darth Vader, but I still capitalize their names because they are proper nouns.
For more information, see:
Mignon Fogarty, "Capitalizing Proper Nouns." Grammar Girl: Quick and Dirty Tips for Better Writing. September 9, 2010
Rebecca Coates, "Punctuation for the Perplexed: Capitalization." Suite101.com, Aug 1, 2010.
Napp Nazworth - I am a political scientist who specializes in American politics, religion and politics, political parties, interest groups, social ...
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