“Arabs continue to strongly support democracy as the best form of government, even as understandings of democracy continue to evolve…” explains Marc Lynch in his article sharing the findings of the Arab Barometer Project.

This project is “different from other surveys” as it uses “very careful methodology” and is highly academic, “which means there is less attention to the current events of the day…and more to the underlying attitudes.” All of the data used is “open and access and available to all researchers.” The survey questions are “designed to be comparable with the Barometers in Latin America, Africa and Europe.”

Based on the data collected, the project concluded that while support for democracy in Jordan and Lebanon declined, “it remained high in absolute terms everywhere.” The results also indicated “some evidence that the political understanding of democracy increased in the wake of the Arab uprising.” The Barometer also found “that support for Islamist views of politics is receding rather than surging.”

These results offer insight into the “underlying attitudes” across the Arab world, but, Lynch explains, “like all the others [results], should be seen as snapshots offering only partial visibility into the real attitudes of Arab citizens and how those views matter.”