Democracy and Islam in the Arab world : lessons from Algeria / Hennie Kotzé and Carlos Garcia-Rivero

Bibliogr. p. 348-352

The study of Arab political culture has been developed exten- sively in recent times in an attempt to test whether the lack of democracy in the Arab world can be ascribed to its political culture, in which religion plays a major role. There are divergent conclusions with regards to this question. In this article, using quantitative techniques, we have analyzed satisfaction with the way democracy is implemented in Algeria at the elite and gen- eral public levels. More speci fi cally, we have looked at whether the demand for more religious in fl uence within the state a ff ects levels of satisfaction with the way democracy is being imple- mented within Algeria. Our results indicate that the low level of satisfaction with the way democracy is implemented in Algeria amongst elites and the public is not driven by politi- cal culture or religion speci fi cally - but by a perception of a lack of respect for human rights in the country and, in the case of the general public, also by a lack of con fi dence in the Algerian state