Mark Tessler
Biographic Data
| ID | 163883 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Mark Tessler |
| GIVEN NAMES | Mark |
| FAMILY NAME | Tessler |
| SIGNATURE | TESSLER M |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Michigan |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-7104-1948 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 75 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1033 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 75 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1972 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 16 |
Netanyahu’s Israel: Rise of the far right
Jotam Confino, a prominent Israeli-Danish journalist, offers readers a detailed and balanced biography of Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel’s current and longest-serving prime minister. The narrative begi
Putting the ‘Public’ Back into Middle East Public Opinion Research: Evidence from Qatar
Survey research on public opinion in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) has dramatically increased in both quantity and quality over the past generation. However, this has not been matched by discussion about the intellectual assumptions of public opinion research in the region as it expands into non-Western and/or non-democratic settings. To remedy this deficiency, we begin this type of investigation by assessing the resonance of public opi…
Fieldwork as pathway in an early academic career
Mark Tessler, who later served ten years as president of AIMS, began his involvement in North Africa with a year of study at the University of Tunis. His study of Islamic and North African Sociology, as well as his extra-curricular experience during this year, introduced him to the issues and concerns that became the focus of his doctoral dissertation. At the same time, his study for a Ph.D. in political science at Northwestern University introdu…
Social Science Research in the Arab World and Beyond: A Guide for Students, Instructors and Researchers
This open access book presents and discusses the logic and method of social science research adapted for use in Arab countries.
The long-term electoral implications of conflict escalation: Doubtful doves and the breakdown of Israel's left-right dichotomy
What prolonged implications does conflict escalation have on voting behavior? The literature focuses primarily on the immediate effect of violent events on voting in nearby elections, leaving open questions about longer-term consequences. This article examines this question by studying Israel, where violent escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the early 2000s was followed by an unexpected electoral outcome: the emergence and consolid…
After the Uprising: The Intifada-Oslo Generation and Attitudes Toward the Palestinian Police
Does experiencing a mass uprising during one’s formative years shape attitudes toward post-uprising institutions? Existing research on cohorts has not examined settings of ongoing statelessness. We focus on Palestinians who witnessed the First Intifada and subsequent Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during their youth-to-adulthood transition. Analyzing a pooled sample of surveys conducted between 1996 and 2000, we observe that men from this cohor…
Why Do You Ask?’ The Nature and Impacts of Attitudes towards Public Opinion Surveys in the Arab World
For the first time in an Arab country, this article examines attitudes toward public opinion surveys and their effects on survey-taking behavior. The study uses original survey data from Qatar, the diverse population of which permits comparisons across cultural–geographical groupings within a single, non-democratic polity. The authors find that Qatari and expatriate Arabs hold positive views of surveys, both in absolute terms and relative to indi…
Religious Minorities in Non-Secular Middle Eastern and North African States
The Impact of the Intifada on Israeli Political Thinking
Israelis who acknowledge Palestinian political rights, and who claim to seek mutual recognition between their country and the Palestinians, in most cases insist that efforts to negotiate a settlement cannot go forward so long as the intifada continues. While Israel’s critics have often claimed that Zionism is racism and compared Israel to South Africa, freedom of political expression and participation for Israeli Arabs has made it possible to sho…
Introduction: Reflections on Scholarship and Fieldwork in the Middle East and North Africa
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Understanding Multiple Perspectives: The Contribution of a Short-Essay Assignment to Teaching about the Arab–Israeli Conflict
Teaching about political conflict requires an understanding of the multiple perspectives and motivations of the parties to the conflict. This is especially true when teaching students who may have strong predispositions, such as in classes on the Arab–Israeli conflict. Various active-learning techniques address this problem but often at a cost of long preparation, substantial class time, and class-size limitations. This article offers both quanti…
Antecedents of Trust among Citizens and Non-citizens in Qatar
Elections in the Arab World: Why Do Citizens Turn Out
This article examines the determinants of voting in competitive authoritarian regimes in the Arab world. In contrast to scholars who view elections in the Arab World purely as patronage contests, we argue that citizens also care about policy outputs and use turnout as a way to signal their approval or disapproval with the regime. We draw on the literature on economic voting in democratic regimes to develop an argument about economic voting under …
Civic Life and Democratic Citizenship in Qatar Findings from the First Qatar World Values Survey
The present study examines the Arab nation that has remained least affected by the regional upheaval that has gripped much of the Middle East and North Africa since the beginning of 2011: the Gulf state of Qatar. Using previously unavailable data from the inaugural Qatar World Values Survey administered in December 2010, we explore the political orientations of ordinary Qatari citizens. Specifically, we extend several recent empirical analyses th…
Attitudes Towards Migrant Workers in the GCC: Evidence from Qatar
With the majority of Qatar’s total population made up of foreigners (high-skilled and low-skilled migrant workers), Qatari nationals may feel that there are significant challenges for their society; despite the absence of employment competition, this may lead many Qataris to see problems as well as benefits in the presence of these migrant workers in their country. Using a split-sample technique, Qataris’ attitudes towards these foreigners were a…
Feeling Betrayed: The Roots of Muslim Anger at America by Steven Kull
Peer Reviewed
New Findings on Arabs and Democracy
Examined with data from the first and second wave of Arab Barometer surveys are support for democracy, understandings of democracy, desires for reform, values associated with a democratic political culture, views about the political role of Islam, and the relationship between support for political Islam and the embrace of democratic values. Broad continuing trends include strong support for democracy, understandings of democracy that emphasize ec…
The Effect of Elections on Public Opinion Toward Democracy: Evidence From Longitudinal Survey Research in Algeria
Given the importance of developing a democratic culture for the long-term survival of democracy, it is crucial to understand whether and how public support for democracy changes over time in response to different events, particularly those that may contribute to democratization. Elections are a key institution associated with democracy; but elections are also found in most nondemocratic regimes, raising questions about whether electoral experienc…
Religion, Religiosity and the Place of Islam in Political Life: Insights from the Arab Barometer Surveys
This paper explores the nature and determinants of attitudes toward the political role of Islam held by ordinary citizens in the Arab world. Based on results from nationally representative surveys carried out in seven Arab states during 2006-2007, it engages the pervasive debate about Islam and democracy—showing that the significant divide is not between those who favor democracy and those who favor Islam, but between those who favor secular demo…
Citizenship and Crisis: Arab Detroit After 9/11
A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, Second Edition
Public Opinion and Democratic Legitimacy
This paper examines on a global scale how important it is for young democracies to deliver economic welfare to win the hearts of their citizens. A decoupling of popular support for democratic form of government from economic performance is believed to be conducive to the consolidation of young democracies. We found an encouraging global pattern that clearly shows evaluations of economic condition are relatively unimportant in explaining level of …
The Democracy Barometers (Part II): Attitudes in the Arab World
The Arab Barometer finds widespread support for democracy in Arab world. Definitions of democracy vary considerably, however, with some citizens emphasizing government accountability and political freedoms and while others stress instrumental considerations, including effectiveness in meeting economic needs. The Arab Barometer also finds that support for pluralism, tolerance and other democratic values are present to the same degree among those w…
Democracy and the political culture orientations of ordinary citizens: A typology for the Arab world and beyond
Using recent survey data from Jordan, the Palestinian Territories and Algeria, the authors examine the interrelationship among six normative and behavioural orientations emphasised in the literature on democratic transitions: support for gender equality, tolerance, interpersonal trust, civic participation, political interest and political knowledge. Factor analysis indicates that these orientations form two distinct and independent conceptual clu…
Saddam Hussein and the Sunni Insurgency: Findings from Values Surveys
MANSOOR MOADDEL is a professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University and research affiliate at Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research, the University of Michigan. MARK TESSLER and RONALD INGLEHART are professors of political science at the University of Michigan. MARK TESSLER and RONALD INGLEHART are professors of political science at the University of Michigan
Islam and Democracy in the Middle East: The Impact of Religious Orientations on Attitudes toward Democracy in Four Arab Countries
Discussions about democracy in Arab world often include attention to political orientations of ordinary men and women. In particular, questions are raised about whether popular attitudes and beliefs constitute an obstacle to democratization, possibly because religious traditions that predominate in most Arab countries inhibit emergence of a democratic political culture. But while questions are frequently raised about views of ordinary citizens, a…
The Democracy Barometers (Part II): Attitudes in the Arab World
The Arab Barometer finds widespread support for democracy in Arab world. Definitions of democracy vary considerably, however, with some citizens emphasizing government accountability and political freedoms and while others stress instrumental considerations, including effectiveness in meeting economic needs. The Arab Barometer also finds that support for pluralism, tolerance and other democratic values are present to the same degree among those w…
New Media in the Muslim World, Second Edition: The Emerging Public Sphere
How today's newest media are reshaping Muslim societies
Gender, Feminism, and Attitudes toward International Conflict: Exploring Relationships with Survey Data from the Middle East
In an effort to contribute to the dialogue between gender studies and international studies, this report presents findings from an empirical investigation based on the integrated secondary analysis of survey data from Israel, Egypt, Palestine, and Kuwait. The goal is to assess the utility of both gender and attitudes pertaining to the circumstances of women in accounting for variance in views about war and peace, and thereafter to examine the deg…
Public Opinion and Democratic Legitimacy
This paper examines on a global scale how important it is for young democracies to deliver economic welfare to win the hearts of their citizens. A decoupling of popular support for democratic form of government from economic performance is believed to be conducive to the consolidation of young democracies. We found an encouraging global pattern that clearly shows evaluations of economic condition are relatively unimportant in explaining level of …
New Findings on Arabs and Democracy
Examined with data from the first and second wave of Arab Barometer surveys are support for democracy, understandings of democracy, desires for reform, values associated with a democratic political culture, views about the political role of Islam, and the relationship between support for political Islam and the embrace of democratic values. Broad continuing trends include strong support for democracy, understandings of democracy that emphasize ec…
Do Islamic Orientations Influence Attitudes Toward Democracy in the Arab World? Evidence from Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, and Algeria
Research on democratic transitions and consolidation has emphasized the importance not only of structural factors, such as institutional reform and economic development, but also political culture. There are differing scholarly opinions about whether a democratic political culture can emerge in the Arab world, however. More specifically, there is disagreement about whether the Islamic attachments of ordinary citizens discourage the emergence of d…
What Leads Some Ordinary Arab Men and Women to Approve of Terrorist Acts Against the United States
Findings from representative national surveys in Algeria and Jordan show that neither religious orientations, judgments about Western culture, nor economic circumstances account for variance in approval of terrorist acts against U.S. targets. Alternatively, in both countries, approval of terrorism against the United States is disproportionately likely among men and women with negative judgments about their own government and about U.S. foreign po…
Elections in the Arab World: Why Do Citizens Turn Out
This article examines the determinants of voting in competitive authoritarian regimes in the Arab world. In contrast to scholars who view elections in the Arab World purely as patronage contests, we argue that citizens also care about policy outputs and use turnout as a way to signal their approval or disapproval with the regime. We draw on the literature on economic voting in democratic regimes to develop an argument about economic voting under …
Further Tests of the Women and Peace Hypothesis: Evidence from Cross-National Survey Research in the Middle East
This research report replicates, extends, and adds a longitudinal dimension to a recently published analysis focusing on the relationship between sex and attitudes toward international conflict, and specifically on the hypothesis that women are more peace-oriented than men. The study being replicated utilized public opinion data from Israel, Egypt, Palestine, and Kuwait. The present report extends the analysis, employing one additional data set f…
Gauging Arab Support for Democracy
The Arab world stands out as a region for its limited progress toward democracy. At the same time, eight national surveys in six Arab countries between 2000 and 2004 show that 90 percent or more of those interviewed would like to see a democratic political system in their country. This does not necessarily imply support for secular democracy, however. Roughly half of the respondents who support democracy also believe that Islam should play an imp…
Xenophobia and In-Group Solidarity in Iraq: A Natural Experiment on the Impact of Insecurity
A large body of research by political scientists, psychologists and historians suggests that "existential security"—the feeling that survival can be taken for granted—is conducive to tolerance of foreigners, openness to social change and a pro-democratic political culture. Conversely, existential insecurity leads to 1) xenophobia and 2) strong in-group solidarity. This article tests these hypotheses against evidence from a recent survey of Iraq—a…
Islam and Attitudes toward International Conflict: Evidence from Survey Research in the Arab World
This article examines the impact of religious orientation on attitudes toward the Arab-Israeli conflict using survey data from five Arab countries: Egypt, Kuwait, Palestine, Jordan, and Lebanon. Consistent with past research that has demonstrated the structural complexity of religious orientations, the present analysis reveals an empirical distinction between personal and political dimensions of religion in all cases where data are available. The…
Political culture in Turkey: Connections among attitudes toward democracy, the military and Islam
Against the background of Turkey's continuing but unconsolidated democratic transition, this article examines the nature and determinants of attitudes toward democracy held by ordinary Turkish citizens. Using data from the World Values Survey conducted in Turkey in 1997, it seeks to contribute to a growing body of literature concerned with the relationship between political culture and democratization. Although this relationship has not been full…
Arab and Muslim Political Attitudes: Stereotypes and Evidence from Survey Research
Although the administration of President George W. Bush insists that the U.S. War on Terrorism is not a war on Islam, too many Americans seem to view it that way. A national poll taken by the University of Michigan’s Institute for Social Research following the attack of September 11, 2001, found that 54 percent expressed the view that the attack was motivated by a conflict between Christianity and Islam. Even more disturbing are the statements of…
Religion, Religiosity and the Place of Islam in Political Life: Insights from the Arab Barometer Surveys
This paper explores the nature and determinants of attitudes toward the political role of Islam held by ordinary citizens in the Arab world. Based on results from nationally representative surveys carried out in seven Arab states during 2006-2007, it engages the pervasive debate about Islam and democracy—showing that the significant divide is not between those who favor democracy and those who favor Islam, but between those who favor secular demo…
How Americans Responded: A Study of Public Reactions to 9/11/01
On the afternoon of Tuesday, September 11, 2001, a group of social scientists at the Institute for Social Research (ISR) gathered to consider how they might employ their talents to help the country after the shocking events of that morning. The group included economists, political scientists, psychologists, sociologists, demographers, and survey methodologists. Based upon their previous research experience, each of them proposed hypotheses on asp…
Political Generations in Developing Countries: Evidence and Insights from Algeria
Journal Article Political Generations in Developing Countries: Evidence and Insights from Algeria Get access Mark Tessler, Mark Tessler mark tessler is a professor of political science at the University of Michigan. Address correspondence to Mark Tessler; e-mail: [email protected]. Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Carrie Konold, Carrie Konold carrie konold and megan reif are doctoral students in political s…
Getting to Arab Democracy: What Do Iraqis Want
Getting to Arab DemocracyWhat Do Iraqis Want? Mark Tessler (bio), Mansoor Moaddel (bio), and Ronald Inglehart (bio) Efforts to establish a new political order in Iraq have thus far concentrated primarily on the construction of new political institutions and the selection of leaders to run them. In the hope of putting Iraq on a path toward democracy, elections for a national assembly were held in January 2005; elected officials then established a …
Tradition and Identity in Changing Africa
The Effect of Elections on Public Opinion Toward Democracy: Evidence From Longitudinal Survey Research in Algeria
Given the importance of developing a democratic culture for the long-term survival of democracy, it is crucial to understand whether and how public support for democracy changes over time in response to different events, particularly those that may contribute to democratization. Elections are a key institution associated with democracy; but elections are also found in most nondemocratic regimes, raising questions about whether electoral experienc…
Why Do You Ask?’ The Nature and Impacts of Attitudes towards Public Opinion Surveys in the Arab World
For the first time in an Arab country, this article examines attitudes toward public opinion surveys and their effects on survey-taking behavior. The study uses original survey data from Qatar, the diverse population of which permits comparisons across cultural–geographical groupings within a single, non-democratic polity. The authors find that Qatari and expatriate Arabs hold positive views of surveys, both in absolute terms and relative to indi…
Political Attitude Research in the Arab World: Emerging Opportunities
This essay describes two very different survey projects that investigate the political attitudes, values, and behavior patterns of ordinary men and women in the Arab world. One is the Arab Democracy Barometer, an American-Arab collaborative project being carried out in five countries. The other is a survey in Palestine conducted as part of the fieldwork for a doctoral dissertation. These projects illustrate the emerging opportunities for politica…
The Political Economy of Attitudes toward Peace among Palestinians and Israelis
This study evaluates the degree to which economic evaluations help to explain attitudes toward peace among Palestinians and Israelis in the years following the 1993 Oslo accords. It first applies insights from political science and economics to the Israeli-Palestinian context, deriving hypotheses that are then tested using survey data from Israel and Palestine (West Bank and Gaza) collected between 1996 and 2001. Findings show that economic orien…
The long-term electoral implications of conflict escalation: Doubtful doves and the breakdown of Israel's left-right dichotomy
What prolonged implications does conflict escalation have on voting behavior? The literature focuses primarily on the immediate effect of violent events on voting in nearby elections, leaving open questions about longer-term consequences. This article examines this question by studying Israel, where violent escalation in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in the early 2000s was followed by an unexpected electoral outcome: the emergence and consolid…
The Application of Western Theories and Measures of Political Participation to A Single-Party North African State
Problems of measurement in comparative research: Perspectives from an African survey
Survey Research in Africa: Its Applications and Limits
The Focus of Comparative Inquiry
Tradition and Identity in Changing Africa
Survey Research in Africa: Its Applications and Limits
Tradition and Identity in Changing Africa
Tradition and Identity in Changing Africa
Tradition and Identity in Changing Africa
The Identity of Religious Minorities in Non-Secular States: Jews in Tunisia and Morocco and Arabs in Israel
Since 1972 I have been conducting a study of Jews in Tunisia and Morocco and Arabs in Israel. This study included interviews with stratified quota samples of Tunisian and Moroccan Jews from August 1972 to August 1973 and conversations with community leaders during these thirteen months, as well as my participation in the life of the Jewish communities. From May through August 1974 I carried out field work in Israel, surveying a stratified quota s…
Acculturation, Socio-Economic Status, and Attitude Change in Tunisia: Implications for Modernisation Theory
This article uses survey data from Tunisia to examine some of the ways that individual attitudes change in a developing society. At the same time, it is addressed to some inadequacies of modernisation theory, attempting both to understand better the impact of social change on attitudes, and to delineate the nature and consequences of different kinds of modernisation experiences. Modernisation studies usually treat lifestyle variations produced by…
The Political Culture of Jews in Tunisia and Morocco
This paper describes the political life of Jews in Tunisia and Morocco in the early 1970s. The findings reported are part of a comparative study of Jews in Tunisia and Morocco and Arabs in Israel
Regime Orientation and Participant Citizenship in Developing Countries: Hypotheses and a Test with Longitudinal Data from Tunisia
T HE CONCEPT of political culture has received much attention in recent years. Introduced by Almond more than two decades ago (1956), political culture is conceptualized as the summary value of citizens' orientations toward the political system and is important because it provides a link between the individual and the political system.' Accordingly, political culture is also an essential component of the broader construct of political development…
Tunisia at the Crossroads
The Political Right in Israel: Its Origins, Growth, and Prospects
(1986). The Political Right in Israel: Its Origins, Growth, and Prospects. Journal of Palestine Studies: Vol. 15, No. 2, pp. 12-55
The Political Right in Israel: Its Origins, Growth, and Prospects
The West Bank and Gaza: Political and Ideological Responses to Occupation
The Economic Orientations of Kuwaiti Women: Their nature, Determinats, And Consequences
The status of women in Arab society, and in other developing areas, is an important subject in which interest is growing. Not only has heightened awareness of feminist issues fostered a general concern for women's emancipation for greater independence and equality with men, but it is also increasingly recognized that the circumstances of women bear a significant relationship to the potential of a society to achieve broader developmental objective…
Tunisia’s New Beginning
The Intifada and Political Discourse in Israel
The intifada has affected political discourse in Israel on several levels. On one hand, since even most Israelis who favor territorial compromise and an accommodation with Palestinian nationalism believe uprising must end before negotiations about future of West Bank and Gaza can begin, last two years have seen intense debate about appropriate means to employ in seeking to contain Palestinian uprising. Many Israelis advocate use of greater force …
The Intifada and Political Discourse in Israel
A Primer on Israeli Political Parties
A Primer on Israeli Political Parties: Party and Politics in Israel: The Battle between Hawks and Doves. . Samuel J. Roberts
Israel, Egypt, and the Palestinians: From Camp David to Intifada
Nascent Israel
Political science (68 works) · Politics (47 works) · Sociology (47 works) · Law (44 works) · Law (36 works) · Jewish and Middle Eastern Studies (29 works) · Political economy (23 works) · History (21 works) · Geography (19 works) · Democracy (18 works)