Middle Eastern Youth and the Arab Spring: Cross-National Variation and Trends in Values

Although scholars and analysts widely claimed that the youth played a crucial role in the making of the revolutionary movements dubbed the Arab Spring, little empirical evidence substantiates this claim or depicts how the younger age groups may differ from the older in value orientation. In this paper, we analyze data from values surveys carried out in the Middle East in the past decades, assessing both cross-national variation in values and broad trends in the values and perceptions of the youth in several Middle Eastern countries. Based on this analysis, we also assess the extent to which the Arab Spring signifies the ushering in of a new cultural episode in the region.