The Nature and Determinants of Regime Preference and Political Values in Jordan, Kuwait, and Palestine: Implications for Arab Politics and for the Study of Governance and Democracy

比较政治研究中的两个相互关联的趋势涉及与阿拉伯世界有关但在该地区研究不足的问题。 其中之一是对一般文化，特别是政治文化的兴趣重新抬头。 另一个问题涉及正在进行民主过渡或寻求开始民主过渡的国家的普通公民的态度和价值观，在这一背景下，拟议的研究将在三个阿拉伯国家进行舆论研究，以审查与施政，包括民主施政有关的态度和价值观的性质和决定因素。 调查的第一个目标是揭示在阿拉伯政治研究中经常被称为“缺失的维度”：普通公民如何、为什么以及在什么意义上思考他们的社会是和应该被治理的方式。 第二个目标是将对这些阿拉伯社会的研究结果与政治学的努力相结合，以构建关于发展中国家治理、民主化和政治文化的普遍见解。将通过约旦、巴勒斯坦（西岸和加沙）和科威特的民意研究收集关于政治态度和价值观的信息。 选择这些国家是出于实际和分析原因。 实际原因包括有本地学者和机构参与这项计划，以及政治气候容许进行民意研究。 分析方面的考虑包括使跨国比较具有指导意义的系统一级的相似性和差异，以及每个国家先前研究的数据的可得性，从而允许进行纵向和跨部门比较，将通过纳入跨国和纵向比较层面来加强该项目的解释性贡献。 将在两个不同的时间点对这三个国家进行审查。 跨越空间和/或时间的类似发现将表明可能具有普遍性的关系，至少对阿拉伯世界，也许对其他发展中地区的非民主政体。 另外，不同的调查结果将允许对与特定模式和可变关系有关的条件进行知情的推测，此外，进一步扩大该项目的比较范围，阿拉伯中东的调查结果将与其他发展中国家的政治态度研究结果进行比较。 这方面的目标是减少阿拉伯经验被排除在比较政治学努力之外的情况，以发展具有广泛适用性的理论见解。

Two interrelated trends in comparative political research address issues that are pertinent to the Arab world but very much under-studied in that region. One is the resurgence of interest in culture in general and political culture in particular. The other concerns the attitudes and values of ordinary citizens in countries undergoing or seeking to initiate democratic transitions.Against this background, the proposed research will carry out public opinion research in three Arab countries in order to examine the nature and determinants of attitudes and values pertaining to governance, including democratic governance. The first goal of the investigation is to shed light on what has often been called the "missing dimension" in the study of Arab politics: how, why, and with what implications do ordinary citizens think about the way their societies are and should be governed. The second goal is to connect findings from the study of these Arab societies to efforts in Political Science to construct generalizable insights about governance, democratization, and political culture in developing countries.Information about political attitudes and values will be collected through public opinion research in Jordan, Palestine (West Bank and Gaza), and Kuwait. These countries have been selected for both practical and analytical reasons. Practical reasons include the availability of local scholars and institutions that will participate in the project, and also a political climate that permits the conduct of opinion research. Analytical considerations include system-level similarities and differences that make cross-national comparison instructive, and also the availability of data from prior research in each country, thereby permitting longitudinal as well as cross-sectional comparison.The project's explanatory contribution will be enhanced through the incorporation of both a cross-national and a longitudinal comparative dimension. The three countries will be examined at two different points in time. Similar findings across space and/or time will suggest relationships that are likely to be generalizable, at least to the Arab world and perhaps to non-democratic polities in other developing areas. Alternatively, different findings will permit informed speculation about the conditionalities associated with particular patterns and variable relationships.In addition, further extending the project's comparative dimension, findings from the Arab Middle East will be compared to findings from political attitude research in other developing countries. The goal in this connection is to reduce exclusion of the Arab experience from efforts in comparative politics to develop theoretical insights of broad applicability.