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Changed Political Attitudes in the Middle East

The Case of Kuwait

The Ohio State University, meyer.23{at}sociology.osu.edu

Helen Rizzo

The American University in Cairo, rizzo{at}aucegypt.edu

Yousef Ali

Kuwait University, yali{at}kuc01.kuniv.edu.kw

The groundswell of interest in Middle Eastern public opinion that arose from debates over the `third wave' of democracy and the `clash of civilizations' as well as from September 11 spawned numerous surveys from 2000 on. However, surveys from the Middle East, particularly longitudinal ones, are largely absent from earlier decades and limit ability to contextualize current findings. Drawing on three surveys from the 1990s, this article examines changes in Kuwaiti citizens' attitudes toward democracy and related issues in the years following the Gulf War of 1991. This serves as a baseline for current research not only in Kuwait but also in other nations, taking account of differences. Findings show that from 1994 to 1998, Kuwaitis increased their preference for democracy, but not for women's rights or western media. They developed more affinity for the Arab world, particularly the Gulf Coast countries. Regarding religious beliefs and practices, there was an increasing desire to separate religion from the public sphere while remaining religious privately. These trends were directional rather than cyclical or fluctuating, and they held across population subgroups.

Key Words: democratization • Islam • Middle East • political change

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