…The fifth and final lesson is that the call for change in the region goes beyond electoral democracy and extends to deep socioeconomic reforms. Iraq and Lebanon show this clearly: relatively free and fair elections have already been held but have served only to reinforce corrupt sectarian regimes. According to the fifth wave of the Arab Barometer, the economic situation…
Search results for: Wave IX
Public Misgivings of Private Affairs: Trust in Private Institutions of the Arab World
Many entities have long suggested that the private sector is the key to economic transformation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) – including foreign governments, international agencies, and economic scholars. Even before the uprisings of 2011, they argued that the private sector has a crucial role to play in reconstructing the strained (if not broken) social contracts of…
MENA Pulse on France & Macron
France has a long history of engagement with MENA, including as a colonial power and through numerous military interventions. More recently, Emmanuel Macron has sought to increase France’s influence across MENA. In 2020, he personally interceded to try to find a solution to the crisis in Lebanon and has worked to deepen engagement with other countries in the region. Nevertheless,…
Food Insecurity Risks Rise Across MENA, Arab Barometer’s Abufalgha Tells Barlaman Today
Millions across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) were already struggling with food insecurity before the current war, according to Mohamed Abufalgha, policy outreach manager at the U.S.-based research network Arab Barometer. Rising prices and supply disruptions could worsen conditions, Abufalgha told Barlaman Today. Arab Barometer published its new regional findings last week. The results of the latest report…
Erdogan is MENA’s most popular leader, Arab Barometer finds
Turkey’s promotion of cultural heritage, including through its tourism and entertainment sectors, is one reason for Erdogan’s popularity. However, the perception of the Ottoman legacy is gradually shifting from one of praise to one of condemnation toward Turkish policies. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan remains MENA’s most popular leader, according to new survey data released by the Arab Barometer this…
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…
Is the Middle East on the mend?
It is unlikely to last, but it is hard to remember the last time the Middle East has been as calm, relatively speaking, as it is today. Consider where we were just over a year ago. Some 3 million displaced Syrians huddled together in Idlib province, the last rebel-held territory, as the world feared the humanitarian catastrophe likely to result…
Iran’s position on Palestine is not enough to win the favor of MENA citizens
During his speech to U.S. Congress in late July, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s comments conflating support for Palestine with blind allegiance to Iran were not just factually unsubstantiated. They were also built on a faulty and falsifiable assumption: that the convergence of stances on Palestine automatically implied a causal relationship between the actions of citizens protesters on the one…
Looking back at the Middle East’s 2019: Surprises from Trump, Saudi power moves, protests and more
Here are 5 takeaways. 2019 was a tumultuous year in the Middle East. A new wave of protests swept through the region, challenging governments in Algeria, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and Sudan. The United States pulled back its forces in Syria as the civil war there took an ominous new turn. Tension between Iran and Saudi Arabia rose to new levels….
Tunisia’s Democratic Pulse
As Tunisia’s major political crisis unfolds, some commentators have argued that the country’s citizens never wanted democracy in the first place. However, data from Arab Barometer presents a different picture. In recently conducted surveys from the Arab Barometer’s sixth wave, a majority of Tunisians say that democracy is always preferable to other forms of government compared to just a quarter…
Tunisia’s democracy in the balance after president’s power grab
Tunisia’s decade-old democracy hangs in the balance after President Kais Saied removed the prime minister and suspended Parliament on Sunday. Why it matters: Tunisia was the lone democracy to emerge from the Arab Spring. It remains the only democracy in the Arab world. But the country’s politics have been deadlocked amid an economic crisis and its worst COVID-19 wave, leading…
What Arabs Think About Education During The COVID-19 Pandemic
On the occasion of the International Day of Education on January 24th, we would like to share nine key findings on what MENA citizens think about education in their countries. This data is based on our most recent sixth wave of surveys that was conducted in seven Arab countries during the COVID-19 pandemic, between July 2020 and April 2021. 1-…
Youth Outlooks: Life Quality and Economic Conditions (Press Release)
In this two-part Arab Pulse blog series, Arab Barometer’s research specialist, Maitha Alsuwaidi, explores MENA youth’s outlook on their quality of life and economic conditions. Here are nine key findings from the two-part blog series: MENA Youth’s (ages 18-29) perceptions on quality of life and their countries’ economies are not different from the perceptions of older age groups. When it…