Arab Barometer: Public Opinion Survey Conducted in Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Bahrain 2006-2009 (ICPSR 26581)

Version Date: Feb 26, 2016

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Principal Investigator(s):
Mark Tessler, University of Michigan; Amaney Jamal, Princeton University; Abdallah Bedaida, University of Algiers; Mhammed Abderebbi, Hassan II-Mohammedia University (Morocco); Khalil Shikaki, Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research; Fares Braizat, University of Jordan. Center for Strategic Studies; Justin Gengler, University of Michigan; Michael Robbins, University of Michigan

Series:

https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26581.v4

Version V4

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Summary

The Arab Barometer is a multicountry social survey designed to assess citizen attitudes about public affairs, governance, and social policy in the Arab World, and to identify factors that shape these attitudes and values. In this first round of the Arab Barometer, respondents in the countries of Jordan, Algeria, Lebanon, Morocco, Yemen, Bahrain and Palestine were queried regarding (1) economic questions, (2) evaluation of political institutions, political participation, and political attitudes, (3) identity and nationalism, (4) politics and religion, (5) religiosity, and (6) the Arab world and international affairs. In regards to economic questions, respondents were asked to give their opinion on the current overall and future economic condition of their countries, and the current economic situation of their families. On the topic of evaluation of political institutions, political participation, and political attitudes, respondents gave their opinions on how much trust they had in political institutions such as political parties, police, parliament, the courts, and the prime minister, their involvement in organizations, whether people can be trusted, city safety, election participation, and the fairness of elections. Further, participants were asked about the ease of obtaining services from the government, the present political situation, their political interest and main source of political information, and their support of the government. Other questions asked their opinions on political competition and reform, participation in political dissent, their opinions on the characteristics of democracy, the degree to which, on a given list of countries, each is a democracy, and how suitable democracy is for the respondents' respective countries. The remaining questions asked respondents for their opinions of various political systems, the performance of their country's current government, problems facing their country, citizen freedoms, corruption, and qualifications for national leadership. Concerning identity and nationalism, respondents were asked how they view themselves, what affiliations were most important, which groups they wished to have as neighbors, what they thought of emigration, and pride in their country. On the subject of politics and religion, queries included the degree to which religion should influence voting in elections, government decisions, and legislation. Regarding religiosity, respondents gave their views on the lottery, choosing a spouse, the interpretation of Islam in present-day issues, the behavior and situation of women in Muslim society, and a person's qualifications for a government job. The final topic, the Arab world and international affairs, questions were asked about the Arab world lagging behind other regions, the effectiveness of the Arab League, whether certain events were part of terrorist operations, the United States' role in the Middle East, and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Additional topics include internet use, time spent in Western countries, and citizen disputes and the use of "wasta" (personal influence or connections). Demographic variables include age, gender, education, employment status, occupation, marital status, religious preference and practices, individual and family income, and country of origin.

Citation

Tessler, Mark, Jamal, Amaney, Bedaida, Abdallah, Abderebbi, Mhammed, Shikaki, Khalil, Braizat, Fares, … Robbins, Michael. Arab Barometer: Public Opinion Survey Conducted in Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Bahrain 2006-2009. Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-02-26. https://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26581.v4

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Funding

Middle East Partnership Initiative, University of Michigan, Princeton University

Subject Terms

Geographic Coverage

Smallest Geographic Unit

country

Distributor(s)

Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research
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Time Period(s)

2006 -- 2009 (Spring 2006 to Spring 2009)

Date of Collection

2006 -- 2009 (Spring 2006 to Spring 2009)

Data Collection Notes

  1. The Arab Barometer survey was carried out within the framework of the Global Democracy Barometer Project.

  2. Although representatives from the participating country teams met regularly both in the Arab world and in the United States for the purpose of making decisions about the content and methodology of the Arab Barometer surveys, please note that there are nonetheless a few instances in which data collection procedures led to differences in one or more countries in question wording or response codes.

  3. Not all questions in the survey instrument were asked in each country. Please refer to the "P.I. Processing Notes" section of the ICPSR Codebook under Original P.I. Documentation for further information.

  4. Additional information about the Arab Barometer project can be found at the Arab Barometer Web site.

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Sample

Please refer to the "Field Reports" section under Original P.I. Documentation in the ICPSR Codebook for sampling information. Additional sampling information about the Arab Barometer project can also be found at the Arab Barometer Web site.

Universe

Citizens of Algeria, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Bahrain, and Yemen aged 18 years and older.

Unit(s) of Observation

individual

Data Type(s)

Mode of Data Collection

Response Rates

Estimated greater than 75%

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Original Release Date

2010-06-08

Version History

2018-02-15 The citation of this study may have changed due to the new version control system that has been implemented. The previous citation was:
  • Tessler, Mark, Amaney Jamal, Abdallah Bedaida, Mhammed Abderebbi, Khalil Shikaki, Fares Braizat, Justin Gengler, and Michael Robbins. Arab Barometer: Public Opinion Survey Conducted in Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Bahrain 2006-2009. ICPSR26581-v4. Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 2016-02-26. http://doi.org/10.3886/ICPSR26581.v4

2016-02-26 The Bahrain data collection instrument and data have been added to the collection.

2013-07-01 Cases for the country Morocco have been set to missing for the variable Q701EXACTAGEWITHOUTMOROCCO.

2012-10-25 Problems with a significant number of interviews in the 2006 Arab Barometer survey in Kuwait were discovered subsequent to the posting of these data on the Barometer's website and to depositing them with the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research. Accordingly, the 2006 Kuwait survey has been removed from the first wave of the Arab Barometer. Additional queries about the Kuwait 2006 data should be made to Amaney Jamal: ajamal@princeton.edu.

2010-06-08 ICPSR data undergo a confidentiality review and are altered when necessary to limit the risk of disclosure. ICPSR also routinely creates ready-to-go data files along with setups in the major statistical software formats as well as standard codebooks to accompany the data. In addition to these procedures, ICPSR performed the following processing steps for this data collection:

  • Created online analysis version with question text.
  • Checked for undocumented or out-of-range codes.
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Weight

The data are not weighted

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Notes