Islam and democratization in the Arab world: A micro level analysis of support for democracy

Official URL: https://risc01.sabanciuniv.edu/record=b2578827 _(Table of contents)

The impact of religion on forming attitudes toward democracy and specifically, whether Islam is fully compatible with democracy is still debated in academic works. Along with theoretical discussions pertaining to Islam and democracy, individual level studies also examine attitudes of Muslim devout toward democracy. Empirical analyses find that Muslims’ support for democracy is positive and Islam does not contradict with democracy. What if Muslims’ understanding of democracy is different? This study aims to explain Muslim’s perception of democracy or the way they understand from democracy. Is what they understand from democracy liberal definition, electoral(procedural) perception or other perceptions? Do different groups of Muslims have different perceptions of democracy? Not only analyzing religious and non-religious Muslim’s perceptions of democracy, this study also seeks to examine distinct religious categories of faithful Muslim and their perceptions of democracy. Do they have liberal perception of democracy in comparison to electoral(procedural) perception of democracy or the opposite? By testing predictions through applying multinomial logistic regressions, empirical analysis found that important variation exists regarding perceptions of democracy among non-religious and distinct religious categories of adherents of Islam. This study aims to contribute to the literature of religiosity and political attitudes.