How Populist Are Arab Citizens? Assessing Populist Attitudes in the Arab World

Abstract Despite being recognized as a global phenomenon, contemporary manifestations of populism in the Arab World have remained underexplored, especially at the individual level. This article aims to address this gap in the literature. The primary objective of the article is to assess the level of populist attitudes across the Arab world by analyzing data from the 8th wave of Arab Opinion Index (2021–2022), covering fourteen countries, and to identify the sociodemographic profile of “populist citizens” in the region. There are three core findings. First, there is substantial variation in the proportion of populist citizens across Arab countries. Second, a strong negative correlation exists between the country’s economic conditions (measured as gdp per capita) and the percentage of its citizens who are populists. Finally, age, education, and unemployment appear to partially drive populist attitudes at the individual level, but not in all countries.