Abstract
This chapter addresses five questions: what were the drivers of the 2011 Uprisings?; what do citizens see as the main challenges facing their country?; do they want democracy and if yes what kind of democracy?; what type of government do they think will deliver on their priorities?; and do they trust their governments to deliver on their priorities? The main conclusions are: citizens see economic factors and corruption as the main driver of the Uprisings and the main challenge facing their country in 2016; while for democracy seen as the best system of government and compatible with Islam what they want is social-democratic democracy; democracy is not necessarily seen as the only type of government that can deliver on their demands; and there is little trust that governments will deliver. The discontent that drove the Uprisings is still evident indicating that further mass protests cannot be ruled out.
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Notes
- 1.
- 2.
Asked a comparable question in 2011, when the Uprisings were ongoing, the responses were much the same: the most frequently mentioned cause of the Uprisings was the economic situation (Teti et al. 2018).
- 3.
Source: AT 2014.
- 4.
Morocco was not included in the ABII survey round.
- 5.
Source: ABIV.
- 6.
A third of respondents said they did not know. Given that the survey was carried out less than a year after the democratically elected government led by Morsi was overthrown in a military coup that had some public support, it is possible that some people were confused about democracy. Certainly, in earlier rounds of the AB and World Values Survey (WVS) Egyptians support for democracy had been as high as or even higher than the support in the other countries. The question was not asked in Egypt in ABIV.
- 7.
The question was not asked in Egypt, and by 2016 the Muslim Brotherhood was a proscribed organisation in Egypt.
- 8.
The question was not asked in Egypt.
- 9.
Source: AB IV; Note: Questions on democratic countries’ performance on economy, maintaining law and order and being indecisive were not asked in Egypt.
- 10.
Source: AT; Note: Don’t know/refused: 26.4% Egypt, 0.7% Jordan, 0.6% Morocco, 1% Tunisia.
- 11.
See Chap. 8 for a more detailed discussion of attitudes to gender equality and women’s rights.
- 12.
Source: ABIII.
- 13.
Source: ABIV.
- 14.
The question was not asked in Egypt.
- 15.
Source: ABIV.
- 16.
Source: ABIV; Notes: Computed from a scale of 0–10: 0–2 = Autocracy; 3–7 = Anocracy; 8–10 = Democracy. Missing values: Egypt 11.1% (4.3% not interested, 6.8% don’t know), Jordan 2.4% (1.9% not interested, 0.5% don’t know), Morocco 11.6% (6.3% not interested, 5.3% don’t know) and Tunisia 5.7% (1.3% not interested, 4.3% don’t know).
- 17.
Source ABIV.
- 18.
- 19.
Sources: ABIV (Council of Minister, Parliament, Political Parties, Courts and Legal System) and AT (Media, Civil Society, Religious Leaders, Trust in Other People).
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Teti, A., Abbott, P., Talbot, V., Maggiolini, P. (2020). What Do ‘The People’ Want? Form and Substance in Democracy and Social Justice. In: Democratisation against Democracy. The European Union in International Affairs. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33883-1_6
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