16 Jun 2007

Correlates of Public Support for Terrorism in the Muslim World
US Institute for Peace (USIP), Washington DC, US
Extract: "Correlates of Public Support for Terrorism in the Muslim World, Ethan Bueno de Mesquita, Washington University in St. Louis, May 17, 2007, www.usip.org Working Paper-1 [...] This report examines the correlates of individual-level support for terrorism in fourteen Muslim countries [incl. Bangladesh, Indonesia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan - ed.]. I identify a variety of factors that are correlated with support for terrorism. These factors can be divided into a several categories: attitudes toward Islam, attitudes toward the United States, attitudes toward politics and economics in the home countries, and demographic factors. The analysis uses individual-level data collected by the Pew Research Center in their survey, 'What the World Thinks 2002: How Global Publics View Their Lives, Their Countries, The World, America.' These data are augmented with national-level data on the economy, the size of the Muslim population, governance, and the level of terrorism. I find that support for terrorism is positively correlated with anti-Americanism, the belief that Islam should play a significant role in politics, the belief that the United States poses a threat to Islam, and, surprisingly, the perception of free expression. Moreover, education, perceived state of the economy, and support for democracy are not found to have any significant relationship to support for terrorism. [...] Summary of Correlates of Terrorism CORRELATION: Islam should play large role in politics (+); Islam does play large role in politics (+); U.S. threat to Islam (+); Home government threat to Islam (-); Perceived free expression (+); State efficiency (-); Age (-); Female (+). UNCORRELATED: General threat to Islam; Religious threat to Islam; Attitude toward the United States; Attitude toward democracy; Perceived state of the economy; Education; Marital status."
Site contents: * About This Report.; * About This Series; * Contents; * Abstract; * 1. Terrorism and Public Support; * 2. The Data; * 2.1 Dependent Variable: Support for Terrorism; * 2.2 Independent Variables; * 3. Statistical Analysis; * 4. Interpreting the Results; * Appendix 1: Results of the ordered Logit; * References; * About the Author; * About The United States Institute of Peace; * Related Publications.
[A PDF document, 2M strong - ed.]
[Ethan Bueno de Mesquita is an Assistant Professor of Political Science in Arts & Sciences at Washington University in St. Louis. - ed.]
URL http://www.usip.org/pubs/working_papers/wp1.pdf
Internet Archive (web.archive.org) [the site was not archived at the time of this abstract]
Link reported by: T. Matthew Ciolek (tmciolek--at--coombs.anu.edu.au)
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