Xenophobia and In-Group Solidarity in Iraq: A Natural Experiment on the Impact of Insecurity: the Iraqi public today shows the highest level of xenophobia found in any of the 85 societies for which data are available ? together with extremely high levels of solidarity with one?s own ethnic group. [...]
But because xenophobia is currently so intense, any government that is seen as dependent on foreign military support is likely to have little legitimacy. Conversely, a new government, elected by a majority of the Iraqi public and no longer dependent on foreigners, should have a much better chance to attain legitimacy. Violent protest against the current government can be presented as resistance to foreign rule but violence against a democratically elected Iraqi government will be far less acceptable to the great majority of the Iraqi public.
Despite threats that anyone who took part in the elections would be killed, and in the face of suicide bombers attempting to infiltrate the polling places, on Election Day in January 2005, millions of Iraqis turned out to vote. Although 300 terrorist attacks took place that day, fully 58 percent of those eligible to vote did so?a higher rate of turnout than in most U.S. presidential elections.
In our survey, 85 percent of the Iraqi public said that ?democracy may have problems, but it?s better than any other form of government.? Their commitment to democracy seems genuine. They were willing to risk their lives for it. [...]
The basic thesis of the article is that insecurity is conducive to xenophobia. The new findings show that from 2004 to 2006, a sense of insecurity increased among the Iraq public?and feelings of xenophobia rose with it. A comparison of findings from the two surveys reveals the following information.
? The percentage of Iraqis who strongly agreed that
?in Iraq these days life is unpredictable and dangerous? rose from 46 percent in 2004 to 59 percent in 2006. This change varied by ethnicity but there was
an increasing sense of insecurity among all major
ethnic groups.
? During the same period, feelings of xenophobia rose among the Iraqis. The percentage of Iraqis who would not like to have Americans as neighbors went up from 87 percent in 2004 to 90 percent in 2006. The comparable figures were 87 percent and 90 percent for the British, and 84 percent and 90 percent for the French, respectively. People from other Islamic countries also became increasingly unwelcome as neighbors: the percentage of Iraqis who did not wish to have Iranians as neighbors increased from 55 percent to 61 percent between the two surveys, and the comparable figures were 50 percent and 59 percent for Kuwaitis, 59 percent and 71 percent for the Turks, and 43 percent and 61 percent for Jordanians.
