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Political Attitudes and Participation among Young Arab Workers: A Comparison of Formal and Informal Workers in Five Arab Countries

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  • Walid Merouani

    (Center for Research in Applied Economics for Development, Algiers BP197, Algeria
    Centre for Research in Economic and Management, University of Caen, 1400 Caen, France)

  • Rana Jawad

    (Department of Social & Policy Sciences, University of Bath, Bath BA2 7AY, UK)

Abstract

Informal employment has long been a feature of Arab economies and as such, better understanding of the political participation of informal workers is important, especially given their involvement in social uprisings, such as during the Arab Spring in 2011. This paper tests for the first time the impact of informality of labour on political participation in five Arab countries: Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, and Tunisia. By using the European Union’s 2015–2016 SAHWA survey and logistic regression models, we are able to show evidence of an association between political participation and informality through the negative impact of the latter on four indicators of political participation: affiliation to political parties/movements; frequency of participation in political activities; frequency of speaking about politics; and voting in elections. Furthermore, the paper confirms that age, gender and education are significant predictors of political participation in the countries analysed. We argue that these findings have relevant policy implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Walid Merouani & Rana Jawad, 2022. "Political Attitudes and Participation among Young Arab Workers: A Comparison of Formal and Informal Workers in Five Arab Countries," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-24, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jscscx:v:11:y:2022:i:11:p:503-:d:959349
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    References listed on IDEAS

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