Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T17:03:59.064Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Islam and Mass Preferences Toward Foreign Direct Investment in Tunisia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2021

Amaney A. Jamal*
Affiliation:
Politics Department, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
Helen V. Milner
Affiliation:
School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, USA
*
*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Abstract

Are FDI and Islam in conflict with one another in the eyes of Tunisians?  Does support for globalization fall or increase when it embraces or challenges Islamic dress, prayer, and other practices? We examine through different experimental tests how Tunisians react to foreign direct investment when it accommodates or conflicts with Islamic norms. Using three original sources of data, including a large representative survey (N = 4,986), a conjoint survey experiment (N = 1,502), and an original survey experiment with experimental social vignettes (N = 504), we examine how threats (and non-threats) from FDI to Islamic norms affect support for FDI. We find strong support for FDI, but these levels of support are not stable. We find the support for FDI falls by almost 32% if it is seen to clash with female Islamic dress. Support is highest when it accommodates Islamic practices, especially the female hijab and lowest when it is perceived to disregard these practices.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of The Experimental Research Section of the American Political Science Association

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This article has earned badges for transparent research practices: Open Data and Open Materials. For details see the Data Availability Statement.

References

Ayoubi, Nazih. 1995. Over-Stating the Arab State: Politics and Society in the Middle East. London: I.B. Tauris.Google Scholar
Barber, Benjamin. 1992. Jihad vs. McWorld. The Atlantic, March.Google Scholar
BBC News. 2011. Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda Party Wins Historic Poll. London: BBC.Google Scholar
Bouzar, D., and Bouzar, L.. 2009. Allah a-t-il-sa place dans l'entreprise? Paris: Albin Michel.Google Scholar
Brown, Nathan J. 2012. When Victory Is Not an Option: Islamist Movements in Arab Politics. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brownlee, Jason. 2005. Political Crisis and Restabilization: Iraq, Libya, Syria, and Tunisia. In Authoritarianism in the Middle East Regimes and Resistance, eds. Posusney, M. P. and Angrist, M. P. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 43–62.Google Scholar
Campante, Filipe, and Yanagizawa-Drott, David. 2013. Does Religion Affect Economic Growth and Happiness? Evidence from Ramadan. Quarterly Journal of Economics 130(2): 615–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawisha, Adeed I. 2005. Arab Nationalism in the Twentieth Century: From Triumph to Despair. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Dreisbach, Tristan. 2013. Citing Weak Economy in Tunisia, IMF Continues to Withhold Funds. Tunisia Live. Tunis: Global Productions LLC.Google Scholar
Ehteshami, Anoushiravan. 2007. Globalization and geopolitics in the Middle East: Old Games, New Rules. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hainmueller, Jens, and Hopkins, Daniel J.. 2015. The Hidden American Immigration Consensus: A Conjoint Analysis of Attitudes Toward Immigrants. American Journal of Political Science 59(3): 529–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hourani, Albert. 1991. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press.Google Scholar
Huff, Connor, and Kertzer, Joshua D.. 2017. How The Public Defines Terrorism. American Journal of Political Science 62(1): 5571.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ibrahim, Saad Eddin. 1995. Liberalization and Democratization in the Arab World: An Overview. In Political Liberalization & Democratization in the Arab World, eds. Brynen, R., Korany, B., and Noble, P. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner Publishers. Vol. 1, 2957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jamal, Amaney A. 2012. Of Empires and Citizens: Pro-American Democracy or No Democracy at All? Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Kepel, Gilles. 2002. Jihad: The Trail of Political Islam. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Klasen, Stephan, and Lamanna, Francesca. 2009. The Impact of Gender Inequality in Education and Employment on Economic Growth in the Middle East and North Africa. Feminist Economics 15(3): 91132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Korany, Bahgat. 2012. Egypt and Beyond: The Arab Spring, the New Pan-Arabism, and the Challenges of Transition. In Arab Spring in Egypt: Revolution and Beyond, eds. Korany, B. and El-Mahdi, R. Cairo, New York: The American University in Cairo Press, 271–94.Google Scholar
Kuran, Timur. 2011. The Long Divergence How Islamic Law Held back the Middle East. Princeton: Princeton Univeristy Press.Google Scholar
Masoud, Tarek E. 2008. Why Islam Wins: Electoral Ecologies and Economies of Political Islam in Contemporary Egypt. New Haven: Department of Political Science, Yale University.Google Scholar
Roy, Olivier. 2004. Globalized Islam: The Search for a New Ummah. The CERI Series in Comparative Politics and International Studies. New York; Paris: Columbia University Press in Association with the Centre d’Etudes et de Recherches Internationales.Google Scholar
Wickham, Carrie Rosefsky. 2015. The Muslim Brotherhood: Evolution of an Islamist Movement. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Zuhur, Sherifa. 1992. Revealing Reveiling: Islamist Gender Ideology in Contemporary Egypt. SUNY Series in Middle Eastern Studies. Albany: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: Link

Jamal and Milner Dataset

Link
Supplementary material: File

Jamal and Milner supplementary material

Jamal and Milner supplementary material

Download Jamal and Milner supplementary material(File)
File 3.3 MB