This paper explores the question of what explains public opinion of women empowerment in the Middle East and North Africa. Muslim societies have often been accused of conservatism toward empowerment, stripping women of equal access to education and opportunities. However, many predominantly Muslim societies in the MENA region seem to be on the way to implement change to provide women…
The Mounting Wave: Protest Participation in Sudan from 2011 to 2019
This article analyzes the evolution of protest participation in Sudan from 2011 to 2018 using the data provided by the Arab Barometer Surveys. It finds that participation evolved substantially in both size and demographic determinants, reflecting the strong deterioration of the population’s socio-economic conditions over the last decade. The Arab Barometer surveys are the only cross-country source of data available…
Arab Barometer Wave V
(2)The Mounting Wave: Protest Participation in Sudan from 2011 to 2019
This article analyzes the evolution of protest participation in Sudan from 2011 to 2018 using the data provided by the Arab Barometer Surveys. It finds that participation evolved substantially in both size and demographic determinants, reflecting the strong deterioration of the population’s socio-economic conditions over the last decade. The Arab Barometer surveys are the only cross-country source of data available…
Determinants of Public Attitudes Towards Immigrants: Evidence from Arab Barometer
What factors determine public opinion towards immigrants? This inquiry is especially crucial in the context of developing countries since they hold 80 per cent of global refugee populations. Lebanon, with the burden on its shoulders due to hosting about one million Syrians, offers a unique case to study the mechanisms driving the formation of attitudes towards immigrants. In this article,…
Can Morocco Effectively Handle the COVID-19 Crisis?
In Morocco, the COVID-19 pandemic has increased public trust in government, but people still have doubts about the effectiveness of the healthcare system. According to a recent study conducted by the Moroccan Institute for Policy Analysis (MIPA), the majority of Moroccans surveyed are generally satisfied with the measures taken by the government to battle the coronavirus. However, the same survey…
Arab Barometer Wave IV
(5)The Mounting Wave: Protest Participation in Sudan from 2011 to 2019
This article analyzes the evolution of protest participation in Sudan from 2011 to 2018 using the data provided by the Arab Barometer Surveys. It finds that participation evolved substantially in both size and demographic determinants, reflecting the strong deterioration of the population’s socio-economic conditions over the last decade. The Arab Barometer surveys are the only cross-country source of data available…
From virtual space to public space: The role of online political activism in protest participation during the Arab Spring
This study examines the relationship between online social media use and protest participation during the Arab Spring, pro-democracy movements that swept across vast parts of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). What role did online communication media play in individual decisions to participate in these high-risk political activities? We address this question by drawing on microdata from the Arab…
Political Division and Social Destruction: Generalized Trust in Palestine
This article discusses the effect of the political division between Fatah and Hamas on the level of generalized trust in Palestine. It argues that the level of trust in Palestinian society has been shaped and influenced by the ongoing political division since 2007. As the level of trust has been declining since 2007, this research suggests that distrust in the…
Arab Barometer Wave III
(4)The Mounting Wave: Protest Participation in Sudan from 2011 to 2019
This article analyzes the evolution of protest participation in Sudan from 2011 to 2018 using the data provided by the Arab Barometer Surveys. It finds that participation evolved substantially in both size and demographic determinants, reflecting the strong deterioration of the population’s socio-economic conditions over the last decade. The Arab Barometer surveys are the only cross-country source of data available…
Political Division and Social Destruction: Generalized Trust in Palestine
This article discusses the effect of the political division between Fatah and Hamas on the level of generalized trust in Palestine. It argues that the level of trust in Palestinian society has been shaped and influenced by the ongoing political division since 2007. As the level of trust has been declining since 2007, this research suggests that distrust in the…
Arab Barometer Wave II
(2)Political Division and Social Destruction: Generalized Trust in Palestine
This article discusses the effect of the political division between Fatah and Hamas on the level of generalized trust in Palestine. It argues that the level of trust in Palestinian society has been shaped and influenced by the ongoing political division since 2007. As the level of trust has been declining since 2007, this research suggests that distrust in the…
Arab Barometer Wave I
(1)Determinants of input- and output-oriented conceptions of democracy in the Arabic world: a multi-level analysis (German)
“Since the 1990’s, more and more studies have been analyzing conceptions of democracy. This study focuses on determinants of conceptions of democracy in the Arabic world. Thereby, we distinguish between input- and output-oriented conceptions of democracy. Whereas the former ones are highlighting procedural elements of democracy, the latter ones focus on materialistic aspects of democracy. We test different theories (modernization…
Exploring Support for Democracy Across the Globe
This report is the first comprehensive analysis on the state of support for democracy across the globe using data from the Global Barometer Surveys. The focus is on support for democracy both because democracy is at the core of the GBS surveys, and because, as a political system, it is currently facing an uphill battle to defend its legitimacy. By exploring the state of support for democracy…
Turkey in the Middle East
Turkey, as country with a long history in the region and its promotion of “shared brotherhood”, has exerted a significant influence on Middle Eastern societies. Even though Turkey followed pro-Israel and anti-Islamist policies in the past, its policies have increasingly become anti-Israel and pro-Islamist with the increasing prominence of Recep Tayyip Erdogan. After the Arab Spring, a period in which…
Who votes for Islamists? A cross-national study of 10 Muslim-majority countries
The literature on Islamist voters is scarce. There are little emphases on Islamist voters and, conversely, plenty of scholarly works on Islamist movements and Islamists who support and sympathize with them. Therefore, this thesis aims to remedy this shortcoming in the political science literature and study Islamist voters as political animals. Precisely, the study is focused on underlining the main…
Arab Public Opinion: Between Attachment to Islam and Commitment to Democracy
International surveys of personal values have existed for almost 40 years (since 1981) in most European countries (the European Values Study or EVS) and in many countries of the world (the World Values Survey), enabling us to observe the evolution of the values of the citizenry in many areas (religion, family, politics, trust, tolerance etc.). Only in much more recent…
Anger Management : The Politics of Frustration in the Arab World and its Implications for the West
…… According to Michael Robbins, an American who heads Arab Barometer, society is driving change, with much of the region growing less religious (The Economist 2017-1). Although the figures need to be studied with some perspective, it seems that Egyptians are praying less (see Table 4), with a decrease of piety over time and these shifts most visible among the young-…
No Arab Bourgeoisie, No Democracy? The Entrepreneurial Middle Class and Democratic Attitudes since the Arab Spring
This study examines the democratic attitudes of the Arab world’s small business community before and after the start of the Arab Spring. We begin by analyzing the results from three waves of the Arab Barometer surveys (2006–2009, 2010–2011, and 2012–2014). All together, these datasets comprise more than 34,000 individuals, which include 3,075 small business owners across fourteen Arab countries. Our…
What Money Can’t Buy: Wealth, Inequality, and Economic Satisfaction in the Rentier State
How do perceived inequalities in allocation impact citizen satisfaction with state-distributed benefits in rentier societies? Resource-rich rentier regimes are widely theorized to maintain the economic and political satisfaction of subjects through wealth distribution. Yet, while qualitative research in the rentier states of the Arabian Peninsula has identified unequal distribution as a source of discontent, the relative importance of objective versus…
Gender, migration and the Arab Spring: evidence from Egypt
Dans les années récentes, plusieurs pays du Moyen Orient et de l’Afrique du Nord (MENA) ont témoigné des vagues de manifestations et de mouvements révolutionnaires, connus sous le nom du « Printemps arabe ». Ces séries de manifestations se sont révélées contagieuses ; elles ont commencé en Tunisie en 2010 et se sont rapidement propagées dans la région. L’Egypte, le…
Limiting Change Through Change: The Key to the Algerian Regime’s Longevity
Algeria is an island of stability in a tumultuous region. Almost seven years after the Arab Spring uprisings, the Algerian regime has shown a significant degree of resilience and adaptability. The country’s relative peace and the regime’s longevity reflect the capacity of elites to dispense political and economic resources in a controlled manner. This approach has created an appearance of…
Review of Islam and Politics in the Middle East: Explaining the Views of Ordinary Citizens by Mark Tessler
Mark A. Tessler is a prominent political scientist, Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate Professor at the University of Michigan, who has worked on comparative politics, International Relations and world politics for more than forty-five years. His works have been translated into French and Persian. He is probably the leading authority on public opinion in the Middle East, and has published numerous…
The EU, Resilience and the MENA Region
Resilience is one of the key concepts introduced in the European Union’s foreign and security lexicon, especially following its inclusion as the main leitmotif of the EU Global Strategy (EUGS). Unveiled by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission (HR/VP) Federica Mogherini in late June 2016, the EUGS…