Defensive minoritarianism: support for democracy among Lebanese Christians
When does religion promote anti-democratic attitudes in the Middle East? A sizeable sub-literature assesses attitudes towards democracy among Muslims in the region, but less attention has been given to the attitudes of minority religious group members. Using data from original survey experiments con...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Routledge
[2020]
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| In: |
Religion, state & society
Year: 2020, Volume: 48, Issue: 5, Pages: 378-397 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Lebanon
/ Christian
/ Political attitude
/ Democracy
/ Support
|
| RelBib Classification: | CG Christianity and Politics CH Christianity and Society KBL Near East and North Africa |
| Further subjects: | B
Lebanon
B Political attitudes B Religion B Minority groups |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Resolving-System) |
| Summary: | When does religion promote anti-democratic attitudes in the Middle East? A sizeable sub-literature assesses attitudes towards democracy among Muslims in the region, but less attention has been given to the attitudes of minority religious group members. Using data from original survey experiments conducted in Lebanon in 2014 and 2018, we test the effects of religious and political primes on attitudes towards democracy among different sectarian groups in Lebanon, with a particular focus on the attitudes of Lebanese Christians. We find that when presented with primes that frame democracy in majoritarian terms, support for democracy among Christians in the treatment group is dramatically lower than Sunni and Shi’a Muslims in the treatment group, and substantially lower than levels of support among Christians in the control group. For Christians, informing respondents of the potentially majoritarian features of democracy highlights the threats that democracy may pose to their relatively small, and likely shrinking, religious group. We argue that this reflects a posture of defensive minoritarianism, in which minority groups instrumentally adopt particular positions in order to maintain institutionalised protections and/or political dominance. These findings shed light on the enduring importance of religious identity in Lebanon in the context of immense social and political change. |
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| ISSN: | 1465-3974 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Religion, state & society
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1080/09637494.2020.1831869 |