Palestinian attitudes toward democracy and its compatibility with Islam: evidence from public opinion research in the West Bank and Gaza.

• Author: Grant, Audra K.

STUDENTS OF ARAB POLITICS OFTEN mention the need to consider the orientations of ordinary men and women, the so-called "Arab street." Unfortunately, however, systematic studies of the attitudes and behavior of ordinary citizens are rare. Insights, while not necessarily inaccurate, are frequently based on anecdotal evidence and hence impressionistic. They sometimes also reflect Western stereotypes about Arabs and Muslims. Accordingly, rigorous empirical research at the individual level of analysis has long been called the missing dimension in the investigation of Arab politics, and there have thus been continuing calls for more and better studies of political culture in the Arab world (Hudson 1995).

The present study responds to such calls, using data from Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), the Arab society where political attitude research is most developed. In contrast to most Arab countries, there are several research centers in Palestine that regularly conduct opinion surveys dealing with important and sensitive political issues. Among other things, these polls include questions about governance, religion, and the connections between them. Drawing upon data collected in one such survey, the present study assesses the nature and determinants of support for democracy in Palestine, giving particular attention to the role of religion in accounting for attitudinal variance and to views regarding the compatibility between democracy and Islam.

DEMOCRACY IN THE ARAB WORLD

The 1980s witnessed a renewed interest in democratization in the Arab world. Confronted with mounting popular anger fueled by economic conditions, government mismanagement and corruption, and the violation of human rights, a number of Arab governments enacted programs of political liberalization. For the most part, these reforms were part of a containment strategy designed to reduce public discontent and to increase regime legitimacy at a time when calls for meaningful political change were increasingly widespread.

These reforms rarely gained momentum, however, and many of the Arab world's democratic experiments were slowed, stalled, or even abandoned altogether during the 1990s. Lisa Anderson offers a forceful expression of the pessimistic assessment voiced by many observers by the beginning of the new millennium (1999, p. 4):

The prospects for democracy seem exceptionally bleak as we survey the remnants of so many of the democratic experiments, from the spectacular crash and bum of Algeria's liberalization to Tunisia's more subtle but no less profound transformation into a police state, from Egypt's backsliding into electoral manipulation [and repression of Islamic political movements] to the obvious reluctance of Palestinian authorities to embrace human rights.

There are some partial exceptions to this depressing characterization. In Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Qatar, for example, some would argue that there is continuing progress and that it is possible to have a meaningful debate about whether the glass is half full or half empty. In the Palestinian Authority, too, there have been accomplishments as well as setbacks in the struggle for democratic governance. On the other hand, according to Freedom House, not a single Arab country qualifies as even an electoral democracy, let alone a true democracy (Karatnycky 2000; also Sivan 2000).

In any event, most of the grievances that fostered popular discontent in the 1980s remain prominent at the present time and calls for democracy are as common as ever among Arab intellectuals and others. As a Jordanian journalist recently wrote, echoing sentiments expressed by many others, "one of the leading sources of instability and political-economic distortion in the Arab world is the unchecked use of state power, combined with the state's whimsical ability to use the rule of law for its own ends" (Khouri 2000).

Advocates of democratization are concerned primarily with government accountability, and with establishing institutions and processes by which citizens can influence political leaders and press governments to be more responsive to the needs of ordinary men and women. In addition, however, some scholars contend that democracy would also enhance the prospects for peace in the Middle East. Drawing upon empirical research in International Relations, they note that democracies almost never go to war against one another and speculate that the prospects for peacefully resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict and other regional disputes would be enhanced if the Arab world were to become more democratic (Gamham and Tessler 1995; Kaufman, Abed, and Rothstein 1993).

POLITICAL CULTURE AND DEMOCRACY

Scholars have long been interested in conditions associated with the initiation of democratic transitions and in factors that make possible the maintenance and eventual consolidation of such transitions. Among these are institutional, procedural, and structural considerations, including the existence of political parties and competitive elections, elite strategies and inter-elite bargaining, the role of political and civic associations, widespread literacy, and economic growth (Rustow 1999, p. 14).

A growing number of scholars assert that the political attitudes and values of ordinary citizens are also important. Indeed, this is not a recent discovery. Almond and Verba observed in 1963, "if the democratic model...is to develop in new nations, it will require more than the formal institutions of democracy -- universal suffrage, the political party, the elective legislature.... A democratic form of participatory political system requires as well a political culture consistent with it... [of which] the norms and attitudes of ordinary citizens are subtler cultural components" (1963, p. 3; also Almond 1980, p. 27). Among these norms and attitudes are a commitment to freedom of expression, political tolerance, respect for competing ideas and preferences, political interest with a willingness to participate in the political process, and an attitude toward government that distinguishes respect for the rule of law from blind and uncritical deference to those in authority (Rose, Mishler, and Haerpfer 1998, p. 98).

Recent studies of democratic transitions in developing and post-Communist countries, the so-called "third wave" of democratization, have placed similar emphasis on the attitudes and values of ordinary citizens. This includes analyses by Huntington (1993) and Inglehart (2000). Inglehart writes in this vein that "democracy is not attained simply by making institutional changes or through elite level maneuvering. Its survival depends also on the values and beliefs of ordinary citizens" (p. 96).

Evidence from Latin America in support of this proposition includes a study by Mainwaring, who concludes that an important factor "that has contributed to the greater survivability of Latin American democracies revolves around changes in political attitudes, toward a greater valorization of democracy" (2000, p. 45). Chu, Diamond and Shin offer a similar assessment in their study of Korea and Taiwan, stating that the consolidation of democratic transitions requires "sustained, internalized belief in and commitment to the legitimacy of democracy among the citizenry at large" (2001, p. 122). The applicability of these conclusions to the Arab world is noted by Harik, who writes "in the long run, of course, a democratic government needs a democratic political culture, and vice versa" (1994, p. 56).

It is against this background that the present study examines the nature and determinants of Palestinian attitudes toward democracy. The analysis derives significance from the importance of the Palestinian case, where a struggle for democracy has been waged since the establishment of the Palestinian Authority in 1994 and where the outcome of this struggle may also have implications for a permanent Palestinian-Israeli peace. Significance also derives from an opportunity to examine the influence of Islamic attachments on political attitudes. As noted below, the relationship between Islam and democracy has been the subject of considerable scholarly debate. Finally, the study is significant because of the dearth of empirical research on Arab political attitudes. Findings about an important Arab society may be compared to findings from research in other world areas, thereby contributing to the quest for theoretical cumulativeness.

ISLAM AND DEMOCRACY

Discussions about Arab political orientations often include questions about the influence of Islam. This is due, in part, both to the nature of Islam and to the religion's political resurgence during the last three decades. Islamic law includes numerous codes governing societal relations and organization. It guides that which is societal as well as personal, corporate as well as individual (Esposito 1991, pp. 3-5). As Voll explains, Islam is a total way of life; it represents a worldview (1992, p. 211). This is one of the reasons that popular support for Islamist movements and parties has grown significantly in recent years (Tessler 1997).

Amid these assumptions, there have long been debates about Islam's proper role in political affairs, including its compatibility with Western conceptions of democracy and governance. As noted in one recent study: "these questions have divided contemporary intellectuals in the Islamic world, like their medieval counterparts, into two main camps. There are those who hold that the question should not be phrased 'whether it is possible' but rather 'how it is possible' to remain a Muslim while acquiring new, non-Muslim values" (Abed 1995, p. 119; also Voll 1992, p. 212).

With respect issues of governance, there are indeed two schools of thought. One position holds that democracy, particularly secular democracy, and even the nation-state are Western conceptions that stand in direct contradiction to the Islamic principles, primarily because they are of...