Sabri Ciftci

This study examines the micro foundations of political support in Arab polities. Most Arab states rank highly in aggregate human development or economic wealth, but they lag behind in democracy defying the predictions of modernization theory. Modernization and human development perspective implies that increased resources and self-expression values will induce critical political outlooks toward the regime. This study questions the applicability of this theory to the Arab region and proposes that colonial state formation history, international patron–client relations, and the domestic patronage networks have more leverage in explaining regime support in the Arab region. A series of multilevel and fixed effects regression estimations utilizing the Arab Democracy Barometer reveal that modernization perspective has some relevance. However, world system theory inspired patron–client perspective and loyalty generation through domestic distributive mechanisms play a greater role in shaping political attitudes. The results provide important insights about micro foundations of Arab authoritarianism and the differential utility of emancipative values formed in the context of hierarchical world order.

This study examines why ordinary people sympathize with a terrorist network in MENA. Holding literalist religious outlook resonating with Al-Qaeda’s marginal interpretation of Islam constant, it is maintained that anti-Americanism and its varieties matter a great deal in explaining attitudes toward al-Qaeda. Using Pew Global Attitudes Surveys conducted in Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, and Tunisia, the authors run conditional mixed process estimations combining seemingly unrelated regressions with selection models to account for the missing values and endogeneity problems. The analysis reveals significant variation both cross-nationally and in the effects of varieties of anti-Americanism on favorability of al-Qaeda. While the dislike of certain aspects of American culture generates sympathy toward al-Qaeda, anti-Americanism as a general attitude does not. More interestingly, dislike of American democracy, technology, and policy has either negative or no effect on favorable views of al-Qaeda. Literalist religious outlook generates positive views of al-Qaeda, but religiosity has a negative impact.  These findings imply that we need to draw careful distinctions between politicized Islamic preferences and personal religiosity as well as the different types of anti-American sentiments in understanding Muslim political attitudes about terrorist groups.

In this article, we examine the patterns of civic engagement in non-democratic and democratizing polities of the Arab world. The theoretical argument incorporates two perspectives: modernization theory and utilitarianism. Specifically, we use wasta-seeking behaviour and indicators of human capital and citizen empowerment to explain the micro-level foundations of civic engagement. We build on the implications of these approaches to explain the civic gender gap and women's status in Arab societies. The results of a series of multivariate estimations using the first wave of the Arab Barometer Survey show that clientelistic behaviour along with higher levels of education and employment status explain citizens' involvement in various forms of civic activities. We argue that the former helps sustain traditional authoritarian structures and the latter may help democratization by strengthening civil society. We also detect a civic gender gap and find that citizen empowerment and modernization may narrow this gap in accordance with the democratic norms whereas utilitarian behaviour may generate a similar effect to indirectly undermine the status of women. These findings provide new insights about the complex interdependence of human development, clientelistic networks, women's status, and democratization in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

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This article investigates the determinants of anti-Muslim sentiment in the West. Starting from the premise that Islamophobic attitudes are more nuanced than a simple dislike of Muslims, I focus on specific forms of attitudes which link Muslims to violence and terrorism. Data from the Pew Global Attitudes Surveys are used to test three theories: perceived threat, social identity, and cognitive capabilities. A series of logit estimations are used for the empirical analysis of individual level data in the USA, Great Britain, France, Germany, and Spain. The results show that perceived realistic and symbolic threat is the most significant source of Islamophobic attitudes in the West. While individuals cognitively differentiate between general feelings toward Muslims and their specific characteristics, higher levels of education significantly reduces negative sentiments. A good number of Westerners think of Muslims as violent individuals while some believe that they support al-Qaeda. Citizens in the West are more likely to associate Muslims with terrorism if they feel threatened by their physical and cultural existence.

This paper focuses on the relationship between social identity based on national, religious, or international affiliations and attitudes toward foreign policy in the Turkish context. Evidence is drawn from an original survey conducted among university students in Turkey. The results show that students' social identity has a significant correlation with their perceptions of foreign policy. Most Turkish university students provide conditional support for the new directions in Turkey's foreign policy, but those with an Islamic identity appear to be more supportive of the Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi's (Justice and Development Party) policies. Most university students believe that Turkey's future lies in the European Union and the Central Asian Turkic republics rather than in the Middle East. Overall, the perceptions of educated youth toward foreign policy are shaped by both social identity and their conceptions of national interest.

Scholarly research investigating the determinants of support for European integration at the individual level is abundant, but the analysis of aggregate-level indicators is relatively less developed. This study examines the collective responses of the Europeans to different environments of integration by using a multiple interrupted time series design with panel data. The results suggest that the context of integration after important treaties changes the aggregate support for integration significantly. More importantly, the analysis provides evidence challenging some findings of earlier studies with regard to the impact of aggregate-level indicators of support for integration.

Course Description and Goals: This graduate seminar is designed to review the scholarly research on the politics of the Middle East. The course aims to expose students to significant theoretical puzzles and the frontiers of applied research in the Middle Eastern politics. We will read, evaluate, and criticize social scientific research published in this area. We will discuss the best examples of qualitative and quantitative works within this research program by imposing a structured organization of the diverse studies in this area. With the completion of this course, you are expected to use the scholarly literature about Middle Eastern politics to conduct your own research.

Empirical scholarship on representative democracy does not fully explain the role of political representation in the presence of enduring ethnic conflict. Ethnic politics involves complicated choices ranging from the use of violence to inclusion in governance. Leaders of an ethnic movement may form political parties, participate in elections and representative institutions, use violence, or utilize a combination of these means toward the achievement of ethnic interests. Turkey has had an oscillating record of democratization and an irregular civil war in the last thirty years. One of the longest ethnic insurgencies, recently escalating in the midst of Syrian war, between Partiya Karkerân Kurdistan (PKK) and the Turkish state provides unique opportunities for understanding the synergies between ethnic conflict and politics of representation. In this essay, I discuss the challenges and consequences of Kurdish political representation in Turkey.

Dindarlık, Sünni-Şii ayrımı ve anti-Amerikancılık bölgesel güç stratejilerini ve bölgesel güç dengelerini önemli oranda etkilemektedir. Sünniliğin kalesi konumundaki Suudi Arabistan, jeopolitik çatışmaların mezhepsel bir kimlik kazanmasıyla yumuşak gücünü arttırmaktadır. İran ise hem anti-Amerikancılık hem de popülist İslami yönetim şekliyle bölgede taraftar bul- maktadır. Türkiye ise Arap kamuoyunda hala laik ve Amerika müttefiki bir ülke olarak algılan- maktadır.