TITLE:
Arabs Want Democracy, but What Kind?
AUTHORS:
Sabrina de Regt
KEYWORDS:
Democracy; Religiosity; Women; Economy; Arab World; World Values Survey
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Applied Sociology,
Vol.3 No.1,
March
18,
2013
ABSTRACT: In recent times, Arabs have shown the world
that they are ready for additional democratic reforms. We must nevertheless
question what democracy means to them. How do they think about the role of
religious leaders in democracy? Does democracy imply extending the rights of
women? How do Arabs see the connection between democracy and a prosperous
economy? Answers to these and similar questions are important in order to
interpret the high levels of support for democracy that are being observed in
the Arab world, as well as the possible outcomes of the Arab spring. It is also
important to examine whether Arabs have a common understanding of democracy or
whether they disagree on the form that democracy should take. Wide variations
in the meaning of democracy could retard the process of democratization. In
this article, public opinion data from Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, and Morocco are
used to develop a detailed image of what democracy means to Arabs.