Arab Barometer
Kroonprins Salman heeft hele veiligheidsapparaat van Saudi-Arabië stevig in handen
“Een deel van de Arabische wereld streeft naar meer religieuze vrijheid. Maar dat is nog geen politieke vrijheid. Als de opiniepeilers van Arab Barometer het bij het rechte eind hebben, is de Arabische wereld in beweging. Onderzoek leert dat de rol van religie in een goed deel van de regio afneemt. De steun voor de invoering van de islamitische wet,…
How Terrorism Affects Attitudes toward Democracy: Tunisia in 2015
Tunisia is the only country that emerged from the Arab Spring as a democracy. However, Tunisian democracy is threatened by political divisions, economic problems, and the threat of terrorist attacks. We shed light on Tunisia’s democratic prospects by examining (1) the degree to which major terrorist attacks in 2015 influenced Tunisian public opinion on democracy and (2) the extent to…
L’Algérie célèbre l’anniversaire de sa Révolution, entre fierté et défis
…Selon une étude réalisée par l’Arab Barometer, le point de vue des Algérien(ne)s sur les questions sociales et religieuses évoluerait en effet plutôt vers un conservatisme plus marqué. L’étude révèle en effet que pour la majorité des répondants, l’enseignement universitaire est plus important pour les garçons que pour les filles, tandis que les femmes mariées ne devraient pas travailler à…
The dangers of unscientific surveys in the Arab world
…Arab leaders themselves, including the region’s many autocratic rulers, have also come to better appreciate survey research. Whereas a decade ago Arab governments tended to view opinion surveys as posing needlessly provocative questions to citizens, particularly since the Arab uprisings of 2011 officials have been more inclined to permit surveys even on sensitive topics, partly to remain informed about shifting…
Did the Egyptian protests lead to change? Evidence from Egypt’s first free Presidential elections
Did the Egyptian protests lead to political change? I examine the effects of the first and second waves of Egyptian protests that started in 2011, on voting outcomes during Egypt’s first free Presidential elections that took place between May and June 2012. I geocoded the “martyrs” – demonstrators who died during the protests – using unique information from the Statistical…
Time to Step Back from the War on Terror
…Several studies, as well as survey data, make it clear that Middle Eastern publics have almost uniformly negative views of American drone strikes, one of the most popular tools of the war on terror. Even worse, the Arab Barometer found that between 53% and 74% of citizens in Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Yemen, Tunisia, and Algeria felt that U.S. intervention justified…
Socio-economic Inequality and the Failure of Development Strategies for the Middle East
The main drivers of the Arab Uprisings were economic grievances and a perceived growth in inequalities. Poor economic growth and lack of inclusive policies are the underlying causes of insecurity in the region The main concerns of people in the MENA are economic security and corruption. People think that the best way in which the EU can help their countries…
Tunisia’s Corruption Contagion: A Transition at Risk
Corruption is a destabilizing force in Tunisia, infecting all levels of its economy, security, and political system. Once tightly controlled under former president Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, corruption has now become endemic, with everyday citizens engaging in and benefitting from corrupt practices. Numerous legal measures and civil society initiatives have been working to fight corruption, but it is perceived to…
World Development Report 2017: Governance and the Law
The past 20 years have seen enormous progress around the world in socioeconomic indicators. The rapid diffusion of technology and greater access to capital and world markets have enabled economic growth rates that were previously unfathomable, and they have helped lift over 1 billion people out of poverty. And yet increased flows have also led to rising inequality, both within…
Women, information ecology, and political protest in the Middle East
Does internet usage increase the likelihood of political protest, and is the effect larger among women than men? Using data from three waves of the Arab Barometer Survey, historical research and interviews with women activists, this paper contributes to the growing body of literature on information ecology and contentious politics in the Middle East. We hypothesized that the internet increases…
Democracy Derailed?
“Over the course of just one week, the Tunisian government has made three concerning moves that, taken together, signal a major backsliding in its democratic development. The first occurred on September 11 when Tunisia’s Parliament approved a government reshuffle that enabled the replacement of 13 of 28 cabinet ministers. It was an alarming move, as some of the new ministers…
Egypt
Egypt is one of the few great empires of antiquity that exists today as a nation state. Despite its extraordinary record of national endurance, the pressures to which Egypt currently is subjected and which are bound to intensify are already straining the ties that hold its political community together, while rendering ever more difficult the task of governing it. In…
Monarchy and Effective Governance: The Success of Middle Eastern Monarchies and the Arab Spring
The purpose of this thesis is to examine the outcomes of the 2011 Arab Spring from the perspective of regime types within the Middle East and North Africa. The intense year of protest that spread throughout the Arab world had disparate effects between countries which this paper investigates. Utilizing an institutional approach, I separate the Arab world into monarchic and…