Religiosity and Democratization: Toward Finding a Causal Linkage in Muslim Countries

Abstract

This is an empirical statistical study of the effect of the degree of religiosity on the degree of democratization among selected Muslim countries. The major objective of this research is to explore the causation or correlation between religion and democracy across Muslim societies. This study is important given the vast scientific disagreement among researches regarding variables under study. Religiosity seems not to have significant impact and correlation on democracy as our research found. We also found that on average and for some indicators of religiosity, countries with various degrees of religiosity tend to have approximately same degrees of democratization. We concluded there is no correlation hence causation between degree of religiosity and degree of democratization in Muslim countries. We used data from Freedom House, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), and World Value Survey to test hypotheses. Keywords: Religiosity, Democratization, Muslim Countries.