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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Briefing: Islam, democracy and public opinion in Africa |
Author: | Bratton, Michael |
Year: | 2003 |
Periodical: | African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society |
Volume: | 102 |
Issue: | 408 |
Period: | July |
Pages: | 493-501 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Mali Nigeria Uganda Tanzania Africa |
Subjects: | Islam public opinion democracy Politics and Government Religion and Witchcraft politics |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3518748 |
Abstract: | How do religious orientations, especially attachments to Islam, affect public support for democracy in sub-Saharan Africa? Data are available from the Afrobarometer - a crossnational survey research project, Round 1 of which was conducted between mid-1999 and mid-2001. It measured religious identifications and attitudes to democracy in four countries in East and West Africa: Mali, Nigeria, Tanzania and Uganda. Across the four countries, the survey population (n = 10,159) was almost evenly divided between Muslims and non-Muslims. The results indicate that although adherents of Islam in Africa occasionally display distinctive political attitudes, they do not differ much from non-Muslims on the subject of democracy and their differences with others do not always run in an anti-democratic direction. Moreover, any hesitancy about supporting democracy among the African Muslims interviewed is due more to deficits of formal education and other attributes of modernization than to the influence of religious attachments. Nevertheless, political tolerance is somewhat lower among Muslims than Christians and political participation lags behind among followers of Islam. Notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |