Trust and Tolerance across the Middle East and North Africa: A Comparative Perspective on the Impact of the Arab Uprisings

Abstract

The protests that swept the Arab Middle East and North Africa (MENA) are expected to have influenced two key civic attitudes fundamental to well-functioning democracies: trust and tolerance. However, systematic comparative assessments of the general patterns and particularities in this region are rare. This contribution theorizes the uprisings' impact and presents new society-level measurements of trust and tolerance for the MENA, synchronizing over 40 Arab Barometer and World Values Survey surveys on Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tunisia, and Yemen, from before and after the uprisings. The analyses firstly show political-institutional trust falling in the uprisings' aftermath in countries that went through democratic reform or regime change. It appears that politicians misbehaving and reforms not resolving social problems hurt people's trust in politics. Secondly, in democratic transition countries Egypt and Tunisia, a decrease in social trust reflected the pattern of political-institutional trust indicating a spill-over effect. Thirdly, ethnoreligious tolerance dropped region-wide after the uprisings, indicating that the aftermath of religious conflict impacted the entire Arab region. These results support rational-choice institutionalist theories, while at the same time refining them for the MENA context.

Support for feminism among highly religious Muslim citizens in the Arab region

“…The growth in the shares of Muslim feminism supporters is especially prevalent since 2011, which makes a connection with the Arab uprisings obvious, although it is too soon to assert whether this change is persistent. At any rate, these results imply that even though the Arab Spring has not led to regime change or progressive policy shifts in many MENA countries, it did seem to alter public perceptions (Spierings, 2017).…”

When and Where Global meets Local: A multilevel analysis of determinants of social trust in the Emirate of Abu Dhabi

“…As argued by Inglehart (1999), a base level of trust and tolerance is formed, usually at a young age, by the economic, political, social, and cultural forces both at the society and community level through socialization. Many Arab countries in the Middle East have suffered from mundane and ethnoreligious conflicts and instability (Owen, 2003), which may have negatively affected the general level of social trust in those countries (Spierings, 2017).…”

Social identity, confidence in institutions, and youth: Evidence from the Arab Spring

“…Finally, Spierings (2017) notes that in reaction to the upheavals, several regimes implemented democratic reforms (e.g., Morocco) or successfully transitioned to democracy (e.g., Tunisia). A rational‐choice institutional perspective would indicate that trust grew as political authorities became more responsive in those circumstances.…”