Support for Democracy in Iran

• Author: Güneş Murat Tezcür,Taghi Azadarmaki,Hooshang Nayebi,Mehri Bahar
• Published date: 01 June 2012
• Date: 01 June 2012
• DOI: 10.1177/1065912910395326
• Subject Matter: Articles

Political Research Quarterly

65(2) 235 –247

© 2012 University of Utah

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DOI: 10.1177/1065912910395326

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This article investigates support for democracy in Iran.

What are the characteristics of individuals who espouse

democratic ideas? The article first addresses the difficulties

of conceptualizing and measuring support for democracy

in authoritarian settings. It then systematically analyzes

popular conceptions of and support for democracy in Iran

in light of this discussion. The data come from two differ-

ent types of random sampling surveys conducted in Iran:

(1) a nationally representative survey conducted under the

auspices of the World Values Surveys (WVS) in 2005 and

(2) a survey conducted by the authors in Tehran in 2008.

The main statistical analyses are based on the Tehran sur-

vey, which allows for a more detailed investigation. The

article reaches three main conclusions. First, the effects of

religiosity on democratic attitudes are direct and pro-

nounced. Higher levels of religiosity are associated with

higher levels of regime support and lower levels of support

for democracy. Second, age and education indirectly affect

support for democracy through satisfaction with regime

performance. Finally, popular discontent with regime per-

formance is strongly and positively correlated with support

for democracy.

Measuring Support for

Democracy

A common approach to measuring popular support for

democracy in cross-national survey research is to construct

an index variable based on several generic questions.

WVS includes questions about the democratic perfor-

mance (i.e., whether democracies are good at maintaining

order, etc.) and ideals (i.e., approval of democracy and its

superiority to other forms of government). When mea-

sured by these indicators, support for democracy in

Muslim-majority countries is as widespread as in other

countries (Tessler 2002; Hofmann 2004; Norris and

Inglehart 2004, 146). At the same time, a growing body of

literature addresses the problems associated with measur-

ing support for democracy in cross-national surveys.

Concepts may have different meanings in different coun-

tries (Przeworski and Teune 1966, 552), and the assump-

tion that democracy can be measured by the same items in

every culture is not always sustainable (Heath, Fisher, and

Smith 2005, 320-21; Heath, Martin, and Spreckelsen

2009). Different actors may use the term for different pur-

poses, ranging from expressing an amorphous political

ideal to legitimizing their political interests. Confronting

this issue is essential to avoid the problem of measurement

error, “the discrepancy between respondents’ attributes

and their survey response” (Groves 1987, S162).

Measuring support for democracy in abstract terms

may lead to misleading inferences given democracy’s

universal appeal. The respondents are likely to evaluate

democracy as a better political system than alternatives

regardless of what they understand from the concept. Not

1Loyola University Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA

2University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Corresponding Author:

Günes¸ Murat Tezcür, Loyola University Chicago, 6525 N Sheridan

Road, Chicago, IL 60626

Email: gtezcur@luc.edu

Support for Democracy in Iran

Günes¸ Murat Tezcür1, Taghi Azadarmaki2, Mehri Bahar2,

and Hooshang Nayebi2

Abstract

This article presents the first systematic analysis of support for democracy in the Islamic Republic of Iran and contributes

to the scholarly literature on popular views of democracy in an authoritarian regime. It reaches three main findings.

First, religiosity is strongly and negatively related with support for democracy. Second, education and age indirectly

affect support for democracy; their effects are mediated through satisfaction with regime performance. Third, greater

dissatisfaction with the regime strongly correlates with greater demands for democratization. The data come from a

survey conducted in Tehran in 2008 and the 2005 Iranian World Values Survey.

Keywords

comparative democratization, public opinion, political participation, religion, Iran