Professional Documents
Culture Documents
98
Journal of Democracy
All
Countries
Jordan
Palestine
Algeria
Morocco
Kuwait
86%
86%
83%
83%
92%
88%
N=5,740
N=1,143
N=1,270
N=1,300
N=1,277
N=750
90%
93%
88%
81%
96%
93%
N=5,740
N=1,143
N=1,270
N=1,300
N=1,277
N=750
99
order. These findings are shown in Table 2 (p. 100), which also presents
percentages for the individual countries.
There is considerable variation in the way that citizens in the Arab
world think about democracy. On the one hand, a solid majority expresses support not only for democracy as an abstract concept but also
for many of the institutions and processes associated with democratic
governance. For example, 62 percent of those interviewed believe that
competition and disagreement among political groups is a good thing for
their country, and 64 percent believe the government should make laws
according to the wishes of the people. On the other hand, when asked to
identify the most important factors that define a democracy, about half
the respondents emphasized economic considerations rather than political rights and freedoms.
In Algeria, Jordan, and Palestine (the question was not asked in Kuwait and Morocco) only about half the respondents stated that the most
important aspect of democracy is the opportunity to change the government through elections or the freedom to criticize the government.
The other half attached greatest importance to democracys (presumed)
ability to provide basic necessities like food, clothing, and shelter for
everyone or to decrease the income gap between rich and poor.8
Such findings suggest that economic issues are central to the way that
many Arab citizens think about governance and, accordingly, that many
men and women probably have an instrumental conception of democracy. When asked to identify the most important problem facing their
country, fully 51 percent of the entire five-country sample described that
problem in economic terms, citing such considerations as poverty, unemployment, and inflation. Only 5 percent stated that authoritarianism
is the most important problem. Slightly higher percentages mentioned
the U.S. occupation of Iraq (8 percent) and the Arab-Israeli conflict (7
percent) as the most important problem.
Coupled with the finding that most Arabs want political reform to be
implemented gradually, this suggests that majorities in the Arab world
attach higher priority to solving economic problems than to securing
the political rights and freedoms associated with democracy. One way
to read this is that Arab-world majorities support democracy, at least in
part, because it promises to make governments more accountable and
more attentive to the concerns of ordinary citizens, particularly their
economic concerns. In other words, for at least some respondents, it is
not so much that democracy is the right political system in a conceptual sense, but rather that democracy is a useful form of government that
has the potential to address many of a countrys most pressing needs.
This conclusion is reinforced by other findings from the Arab Barometer surveys. Respondents were much more likely to be critical of their
government for poor economic performance than for a lack of freedom.
Indeed, slender majorities view their governments favorably on political
100
Journal of Democracy
Jordan
Palestine
Algeria
Morocco
Kuwait
52%
59%
71%
45%
50%
23%
Follows news
about politics often or very often
56%
49%
78%
45%
49%
23%
Political reform
should be introduced gradually
83%
77%
91%
79%
81%
88%
In a democracy,
the economy runs
badly
31%
38%
41%
38%
10%
28%
Democracies are
bad at maintaining order
33%
36%
42%
43%
12%
33%
Competition and
disagreement are
not a bad thing
for our country
62%
60%
50%
61%
67%
79%
The government
should make laws
according to the
wishes of the
people
61%
58%
59%
59%
81%
62%
Percentage of
people giving a
political feature of
democracy as the
most important*
48%
39%
58%
50%
grounds. For example, 54 percent believe that they have the power to
influence government decisions; 50 percent believe that the courts are
fair; 53 percent believe that they can criticize the government without
fear; and 57 percent believe that they can join organizations without
fear. By contrast, only 33 and 31 percent, respectively, believe that their
government is doing a good job of fighting unemployment and narrowing the gap between rich and poor.
101
102
Journal of Democracy
Strongly Disagree/
Disagree that Men of Religion
Should Influence Government
Decisions
All Countries
54%
46%
Jordan
52%
48%
Palestine
55%
45%
Algeria
58%
42%
Morocco
63%
37%
Kuwait
39%
61%
103
How do Muslim Arabs who express support for democracy but also
want their religion to have a meaningful role in political life understand
what might be called Islamic democracy? Aspects of this question
pertaining to Islam itselfto views about the particular ways that democratic political life might incorporate an Islamic dimensionare beyond
the scope of this essay.
More pertinent to the present study is the question of whether those
who support Islamic democracy possess democratic values, both in absolute terms and relative to those who support secular democracy. Table
4 (p. 104) presents data with which to address this question. The Table
compares respondents who favor secular democracy and those who favor Islamic democracy with respect to three normative orientations that
relevant scholarship has identified as necessary (along with support for
democracy) to the long-term success of a democratic transition. These
values are: 1) respect for political diversity and dissent, measured by
the importance that respondents attribute to the presence of political
leaders who are open to different political opinions; 2) social tolerance,
measured by respondents stating that they would harbor no objection to
having neighbors of a different race; and 3) gender equality, measured
by a question asking whether men and women should have equal job
opportunities and wages. While these are only some of the values that
are important for democracy, responses to questions about them will offer insights about the presence or absence of democratic values among
Muslim Arab men and women in general and, in particular, about similarities or differences in the values of citizens with dissimilar preferences regarding the place of Islam in democratic political life.
Several conclusions may be drawn from Table 4. First, most men
and women in every country express democratic values. Almost all respondents consider it important that political leaders be open to diverse
ideas. Social tolerance, as reflected in openness to having neighbors
of a different race, is also very high. Indeed, overall, there is only one
instance in which less than two-thirds of those surveyed answered in a
manner inconsistent with democracy. This instance occurs among those
Algerian respondents who say that they favor Islamic democracy. Of
these, only 57 percent say that they favor equal job opportunities and
wages for men and women (compared to 71 percent among secular democrats).
Second, there are very few significant differences between respondents who favor secular democracy and those who favor Islamic democracy. The former are more likely to endorse a norm that is consistent
with democracy in most instances, but differences are almost always
very small. In only two of the fourteen country-specific comparisons
shown in Table 4 is the difference between those who favor secular democracy and those who favor Islamic democracy greater than 10 percent
(12 percent in one instance and 14 percent in the other). In almost all
104
Journal of Democracy
All
Countries
Jordan
Palestine
Algeria
Morocco
Kuwait
Do not mind
having neighbors
of a different race
Men and
women should
have equal job
opportunities
and wages
Secular
Democracy
95
86
76
Islamic
Democracy
95
82
70
Secular
Democracy
94
79
66
Islamic
Democracy
92
67
66
Secular
Democracy
96
NA
79
Islamic
Democracy
97
NA
72
Secular
Democracy
95
83
71
Islamic
Democracy
96
80
57
Secular
Democracy
93
94
78
Islamic
Democracy
95
89
77
Secular
Democracy
96
88
85
Islamic
Democracy
98
92
84
105
106
Journal of Democracy
tional circumstances determine how political judgments shape citizens attitudes about the desired connection between democracy and
Islam. Even in the absence of such inquiry, however, findings from the
Arab Barometer make clear that explanatory power is to be found in
political judgments rather than religious orientations.
107
Strongly Disagree/
Disagree
All Countries
15%
25%
Jordan
25%
37%
Palestine
14%
14%
Algeria
8%
18%
Morocco
16%
37%
Kuwait
8%
30%
We have also carried out a regression analysis (similar to that presented with respect to the connection between attitudes toward democracy and political Islam) to shed light on the connection between support for a democratic political system and support for an undemocratic
leader. Again, binary logistic regression has been used since the analysis
includes only those who support democracy and do not approve of undemocratic leadership and those who support democracy and do approve
of undemocratic leadership.15 Also, once again, the same measures of
personal religiosity and political evaluations are employed, as are the
control variables of age, educational level, and economic well-being.
The results are consistent both with the conclusions about religiosity
reported above and with the hypothesis offered to explain why some
individuals who favor democracy might also express approval of an undemocratic leader. On the one hand, in none of the five countries for
which data are available is this combination of supposedly contradictory attitudes more common among those individuals who are more religious.
On the other hand, political assessments have explanatory power in
four of the five countries, Kuwait being the exception. In Algeria, Jordan, and Palestine, individuals who believe that democracies are not
good at maintaining order are more likely than others to couple support
for democracy with support for strong leadership. In Morocco, those
who believe that democracies are not good at maintaining order are less
likely than others to combine a preference for strong leadership with
support for democracy. In Morocco and Jordan (both of which are monarchies) individuals who believe that citizens have the ability to influence government activities and policies are disproportionately likely to
favor democracy, but also express support for a strong leader who does
not have to bother with parliament and elections. Thus, as the Arab Ba-
108
Journal of Democracy
rometer data have shown with respect to all the questions investigated,
the political-system preferences and views about governance held by
ordinary men and women are not shaped to a significant degree by religious orientations or attachments. By contrast, these preferences and
views do appear to be influenced in important ways by peoples judgments and perceptions relating to political considerations.
109
110
Journal of Democracy
7. Additional surveys in the first wave of the Arab Barometer are scheduled to be carried out in Yemen and Lebanon in early 2008.
8. The characteristics attributed to democracy were assessed by the following item:
People often differ in their views on the characteristics that are essential to democracy.
If you have to choose only one thing, what would you choose as the most important characteristic, and what would be the second most important? The response code listed the
four attributes discussed in the text and also gave respondents the option of specifying
another characteristic. Almost 99 percent of the respondents selected one of the four listed
characteristics.
9. For excellent discussions of the compatibility of Islam and democracy, see Khaled
Abou Fadl, Islam and the Challenge of Democracy (Princeton: Princeton University Press,
2004); John Esposito and John Voll, Islam and Democracy (New York: Oxford University
Press, 1996); Jos Casanova, Civil Society and Religion: Retrospective Reflections on
Catholicism and Prospective Reflections on Islam, Social Research 68 (Winter 2001):
104180; and Vali Nasr, The Rise of Muslim Democracy? Journal of Democracy 16
(April 2005): 1327. For a data-based examination of why support for Islam in politics
is compatible with support for democracy, see Amaney Jamal, Reassessing Support for
Democracy and Islam in the Arab World: Evidence from Egypt and Jordan, World Affairs
169 (Fall 2006): 5163.
10. Samuel P. Huntington, The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of the World
Order (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1996), 13539. See also his article Will More
Countries Become Democratic? Political Science Quarterly 99 (Summer 1984): 193
218.
11. Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man (New York: Avon, 1992),
4546.
12. See, for example, Daniel Pipes, Debate: Islam and Democracy, PBS Wide
Angle, 15 July 2003, www.danielpipes.org/article/1167. See also Bernard Lewis, The
Shaping of the Modern Middle East (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994); and Elie
Kedourie, Democracy and Arab Political Culture (Washington, D.C.: Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 1992).
13. We used factor analysis to assess the consistency among a number of survey items
designed to measure judgments pertaining to political Islam. Many of these items loaded
highly on a common factor, offering evidence of reliability and increasing confidence in
validity. The item asking whether men of religion should have influence over government
decisions was the best single indicator of this dimension, and for purposes of clarity and
parsimony it is used in the present analysis as a measure of support for political Islam.
14. Our regression tables may be found at www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/TesslerGraphics-19-1.pdf.
15. The regression table in question may be found at www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/gratis/TesslerGraphics-19-1.pdf.