Democracy and the political culture orientations of ordinary citizens: a typology for the Arab world and beyond

Abstract

Using recent survey data from Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Algeria, the authors examine the interrelationship among six normative and behavioural orientations emphasised in the literature on democratic transitions: support for gender equality, tolerance, interpersonal trust, civic participation, political interest and political knowledge. Factor analysis indicates that these orientations form two distinct and independent conceptual clusters, one involving gender equality and tolerance, described as a pluralism dimension; and the other involving interpersonal trust, civic participation, political interest and political knowledge, described as an involvement dimension. The dichotomisation and juxtaposition of these two independent dimensions creates a four‐category typology of the political culture orientations of ordinary citizens: democratic – high on both dimensions; indifferent – high on the pluralism dimension and low on the involvement dimensions; activist – low on the pluralism dimension and high on the involvement dimensions; and parochial – low on both dimensions. In addition to offering this typology as a way to map norms and behaviour patterns that are important for democracy, the study compares the distribution of Jordanian, Palestinian and Algerian citizens across the four categories of political orientation and offers insights about the reasons for differences among the three countries.

A Clash of Civilizations? Muslims, Christians, and Preferences for Democracy

“…In this way, I avoid the problem, on the one hand, of people merely expressing superficial support for democracy and, on the other hand, actually having authoritarian political propensities (Schedler and Sarsfield ). Accordingly, this is a more demanding measure of support for democracy than the overt and superficial measure used by previous studies (see, e.g., Inglehart ; Inglehart and Norris ; Tessler and Gao ).…”

“…Yet, empirical evidence on how Muslims view democracy compared to Christians is remarkably rare (Diamond and Plattner ; Fish ; Tessler ), as most of the writings in this debate are theoretical discussions. However, a few studies have sought to examine the level of overt and superficial support for democracy in some Middle Eastern countries (e.g., Ciftci ; Jamal ; Tessler ; Tessler and Gao ). Unfortunately, they do not offer systematic tests of whether Muslims are more inclined towards or resistant to democracy than Christians.…”

“…In recent years, a few studies have been conducted on individuals’ support for democracy, typically in Middle Eastern countries (e.g., Ciftci ; Jamal ; Tessler ; Tessler and Gao ). However, for three main reasons, these studies are unable to answer the question of whether Muslims are less likely than Christians to favor democracy.…”

Lessons about nation‐building and civil society

“…Armony (2004) styles such organisations ''civil society's dark side'', fostering not generalised trust of others but only particularised trust of fellow participants. Tessler and Gao (2008) contend that participation fosters generalised trust only when members share a certain political culture -one that is not yet prevalent in numerous countries. Similarly, Braun (2008) cites cultural and historical traditions to explain why social democracy need not produce political democracy.…”

“…That is to say, works of this kind compare individuals in light of the extent or type of their civic engagement and their characteristics, such as trust. A good example of this approach in this series is that of Tessler and Gao (2008). The big question in this approach to civil society is, in which direction does the causal arrow run?…”