Saudi Arabia—Religion, Gender, and the Desire for Democracy

Abstract

The social scientific analysis of Saudi Arabia is at a certain crossroad. The UNDP’s Human Development Report, (2019) already put its emphasis on inequality and still existing restrictive gender norms as the most decisive issues of global development in the twenty-first century. The official Saudi government plan “Saudi Arabia 2030” focused equally reform and gender. With the availability of World Values Survey data, a more thorough probe into these realities of Saudi society is possible. Even a precursory view of the World Values Survey data from Saudi Arabia reveals highly interesting and contradictory perspectives and conclusions about a political system, which is officially an absolute monarchy governed by a system of Shari’a law. Our data reveal a considerable incipient support for less restrictive gender norms and democracy already being held by Saudi publics. Our analysis—the most comprehensive multivariate analysis of Saudi opinions ever undertaken in the literature—first of all presents an exploratory 54 variable promax factor analysis of the World Values Survey data on Saudi Arabia. We then proceeded to analyze gender norms in Saudi Arabia in a larger context of World Values Survey data from the Muslim world. A fairly good WVS coverage of these issues is available for Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Jordan, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey. In a final round of analysis, we attempted a second-order factor analysis of the opinions of Saudi publics again based on 54 variables. We especially tested the correlations between these second-order promax factors and also analyzed the factor scores of those 23% of Saudi Arab respondents who are in favor of a radical change of society.This methodology allows us to assess the long-term perspectives of change in Saudi society. Saudi publics in favor of a radical change of society are in the league of the six nations of the world with the most widespread desire for a radical break with the past. Our data thus suggest a considerable potential for a “Saudi Spring” of opposition to the current system. The social values of this opposition are characterized by religious faith among people rejecting polygamy, feminism, and religious tolerance and trust in social movements. By and large, our research confirms the hypotheses that the undeniable economic advancement of women in Saudi society will bring about a change in the official normative system hitherto favoring very restrictive gender norms.