Why Muslims like democracy yet have so little of it

Abstract

This paper explains the observed combination of relatively low levels of democracy and positive attitudes towards it in the Muslim world. It argues that this democracy paradox is understandable from the perspective of the principle of diminishing marginal utility: people value highly that of which they have little. This reasoning implies, however, that surveys like the World Values Surveys (WVS) elicit circumstance-driven marginal preferences rather than culturally determined attitudinal traits. Empirical evidence showing that individuals living in undemocratic societies have much more favorable inclinations towards democracy supports our argument.

Why Are Women Less Democratic Than Men? Evidence from Sub-Saharan African Countries

“…Our results indicate that democracy has no impact either on its own or interacted with gender. This contrasts with the argument put forward by Maseland and van Hoorn (2011) that support for democracy is greater the less abundant it is, although the coefficient has the expected negative sign and its low significance could be due to the lack variability in the measure of democracy in our small sample of countries. Civil rights also has insignificant coefficients, while that on political rights is insignificant on its own but positive and significant when interacted with gender.…”

“…Rowley and Smith (2009) and Maseland and van Hoorn (2011) use the World Values Survey for countries from different regions to test whether citizens from Muslim majority countries are less democratic than others. Among the different controls, they include gender and the resulting coefficient indicates that women are less democratic than men.…”

“…the fact that democracy is popular yet rare in Muslim-majority countries; see Rowley and Smith (2009). Maseland and van Hoorn (2011) maintain that the positive attitudes towards democracy of citizens in Muslim countries should not be explained by religion but rather by decreasing marginal utility. The scarcity of democracy -which tends to be a feature of Muslimmajority countries-implies that residents in those countries value it more than those from countries where the supply of democracy is larger.…”

Does personal freedom influence outbound tourism?

“…He states that economic development yields diminishing marginal gains in materials and wealth the richer a society becomes, the less importance people attach to growing richer. Maseland and Van Hoorn (2011) claim that the phenomenon of Muslim majority countries tending to be less democratic, while individuals in these countries value democracy more that other people do, can be explained by applying the economic principle of diminishing marginal utility. That is, as Muslim majority countries are mostly undemocratic, their inhabitants have a stronger desire for more democracy.…”

Islam and democracy

“…For an overview of the relation between democracy and economic development, seeHillman (2007b). SeeMaseland and Van Hoorn (2010) on the attitudes towards democracy in the Muslim world. SeeBerggren and Bjørnskov (2010) on religion and social trust.…”