The Relationship between University Education and Democracy in the Arab World

This study uses the database of the Arab Barometer Survey to investigate the relationship between university education and support for democracy in the following 10 Arab states: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen. With its focus on the Arab region, and using data specifically targeting people with a university education, this study offers a different angle to the relationship between education and democracy. Previous attempts to analyze this link have led to some contradictory conclusions, with some reporting on the existence of a positive correlation and others denying it. The findings of this research suggest that, in the states studied, there is no direct link between an individual receiving a university education and support for a democratic system of government; rather, there are other factors at play such as the quality of general education and its wide-ranging reach to all members of society.

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This study uses the database of the Arab Barometer Survey to investigate the relationship between university education and support for democracy in the following 10 Arab states: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen. With its focus on the Arab region, and using data specifically targeting people with a university education, this study offers a different angle to the relationship between education and democracy. Previous attempts to analyze this link have led to some contradictory conclusions, with some reporting on the existence of a positive correlation and others denying it. The findings of this research suggest that, in the states studied, there is no direct link between an individual receiving a university education and support for a democratic system of government; rather, there are other factors at play such as the quality of general education and its wide-ranging reach to all members of society.

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