New Findings on Arabs and Democracy

Abstract

Examined with data from the first and second wave of Arab Barometer surveys are support for democracy, understandings of democracy, desires for reform, values associated with a democratic political culture, views about the political role of Islam, and the relationship between support for political Islam and the embrace of democratic values. Broad continuing trends include strong support for democracy, understandings of democracy that emphasize economic considerations, and a division of opinion about Islam’s political role. Findings from surveys in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011 are discussed in greater detail in relation to post–Arab Spring developments in the two countries.

Democratic values and the microfoundations of Arab support for peace with Israel

“…Answers were recoded and combined so that higher scores indicate stronger preference for democracy as a political system (tables I and II, supplementary file). The broad support which democracy as a political system enjoyed at the time of the survey in 2010/11 was not just an effect of the early enthusiasm of the Arab Spring, but is very much in line with empirical evidence collected and analyzed before (Tessler and Gao, 2005;Tessler, Jamal and Robbins, 2012 (2015) established at a global level. Indeed, apart from the strong impact of the variable capturing Christian respondents discussed below, views on secularism and gender equality exert the greatest substantive influence on support for peace.…”

Appropriating democratic discourse in North Africa

“…Historical studies show that, during the colonial period, North African nationalists used French liberal discourses of liberty, equality, and fraternity to critique colonial rule (e.g., Malley, 1996) and some area experts argue that the 2011 uprisings may have been a direct result of the dissonance between leaders' democratic discourses and their autocratic practices (e.g., Hibou, 2011;Ritter 2015). However, given the long history of social movements in the Arab world agitating for democracy and the historically high rates of support for democracy among Arabs (Chalcraft, 2016;Tessler et al, 2012;Thompson, 2013), it is possible that the North African leaders' appropriated discourses and the 2011 uprisings were both results of ongoing pressure from local populations. A full investigation of the relationship between autocrats' appropriation of global norms like democracy and mass mobilization in pursuit of these norms is beyond the scope of this study, but researchers interested in this topic may benefit from examining the interplay between global, authoritarian, and oppositional discourses.…”

“…While it common practice for autocrats across the globe to talk about democracy, the question of how they do so is particularly acute in the Arab world, a region that has long stood out for its lack of democratization (Diamond, 2010) despite enthusiasm for democracy among Arabs (Tessler et al, 2012) and Arab rulers' frequent promises of political liberalization (AlAzmeh, 1994;Bishara, 1998;Ghalyūn, 1991Ghalyūn, , 1992Huwaidi, 1993;Ismail, 1995;Sadiki, 2004 Book during public appearances (Tremlett, 1993), and it was so closely linked to Qadhafi that copies of it were publicly burned by demonstrators during the 2011 uprising). Of these, I…”

Is There an Islamist Political Advantage?

“…And yet, it appears to be a minority of the population. Based on a variety of indicators, for example, the past two waves of the Arab Barometer Survey suggest that a majority of the population at least in the Arab world “[prefer] a [political] system without a strong role for Islam or religious actors” (Tessler et al 2012, p. 96). Moreover, an emphasis on ideology cannot explain the electoral prospects of Islamists where their hegemony is compromised.…”