In Search of a Sociopolitical Community: The Cases of Egypt, Iran, and Jordan

Eastern Michigan University, Ypsilanti MI

Investigators

Abstract

The project consists of conducting face-to-face interviews on worldviews of the publics of Egypt, Iran and Jordan. The study builds upon a NSF-funded pilot study that was designed and executed in collaboration with social scientists from the three countries. The purpose of these surveys of representative national samples is to: (1) analyze the value orientation of the publics; (2) understand the connection between social groups and value structures; (3) assess in conjunction with the existing comparative historical research the connection between secularization in the three countries and rational-legal authority and liberal democracy; (4) to explore the extent and forms of religiosity, and the relationships between religion and gender and between religion and nationalism; and (5) examine the degree of concordance of values in these societies. The project is informed by a set of historically significant issues raised in more than a century of ideological contentions that transpired in these countries. The historical social transformation of Egypt, Iran, and Jordan in the modern era did not produce a national consensus in these countries regarding the most fundamental principles of social organization, such as the form of government, appropriate economic model, the relationship with the outside world, the status of women and a national identity. Instead these societies experienced different cultural movements based on diverse values structures. The included liberal-nationalism, Islamic modernism, pan Arab nationalism (in Egypt and Jordan) and Islamic fundamentalism. Several questions will be examined in this study. (1) To what extent is there public support for these diverse value structures in Egypt, Iran and Jordan? Do these value structures correspond to diverse social groups and classes? (2) How do value structures of the publics of Egypt, Iran and Jordan differ from each other? To what extent is there a shared set of beliefs among the peoples of these societies? (3) How widespread are fundamentalist religious beliefs among these publics? What factors are conducive of these beliefs? (4) How strong is support for democracy? How widespread are related orientations such as interpersonal trust and tolerance? What factors are conductive to a democratic political culture? (5) Do basic sociological generalizations hold in Islamic societies? Is there a positive correlation between class and religiosity and between religious and political participation? Are women more religious than men in these societies are? The surveys are being conducted as part of the World Value Survey and key items on value orientations are the same one that have been included on surveys in a number of other countries will be included. It is thus possible to analyze data from the Islamic world using comparative yardsticks that make the findings meaningful in a global context.