Abstract
What explains support for democracy and Sharia in the Arab World? Is there a linkage between the underlying orientations toward these concepts? My starting point for answering these questions is the much-debated notion of democracy gap among the Arab nations. To explain this gap, scholars have developed different views about the compatibility/incompatibility of Islamic values and democracy. Some proponents of the incompatibility approach believe that freedom gap is more robust in the Arab world due to some elements unique to this culture like patrimonial relationships and support for Sharia. At a higher level of theoretical abstraction, it is argued that Sharia, Islamist ideology, and democracy cannot coexist and that Islamist political thinking requires a system completely different than the pluralist democratic regime. In this paper, I examine the validity of these arguments at the micro level of individual attitudes. The paper builds on the argument that support for Sharia and support for democracy may be linked in different ways and the incompatibility thesis may not necessarily be valid in the realm of attitudes. The first scenario predicts that attitudes toward democracy and Sharia are diametrically opposed and a positive tendency in the former implies a negative orientation in the latter. According to the second scenario, a parallel orientation of attitudes may be observed where positive and negative orientations toward Sharia and democracy coexist leading to the compatibility of these notions. Finally, individual attitudes about the two concepts may be independent where none of the proposed linkages exist. To test these different hypotheses, I use data from the Arab Barometer Surveys conducted in five Arab nations: Jordan, Palestine, Morocco, Algeria and Kuwait. I use a bivariate ordered probit model to simultaneously analyze the linkages between attitudes toward democracy and Sharia in the Arab world. The models control for religiosity, political Islamist ideology, trust, socio-economic attitudes, and perceptions of gender equality. The preliminary results show that Islamic values and democracy are not incompatible in the realm of attitudes and support for Sharia and democracy are not necessarily exclusive in the Arab world. I discuss these findings for the chances of democracy in Arab nations.
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