Despite persistent violence, Iraq's future may not be bleak. While neither American nor Iraqi security officials have yet found a way to tame the militias, the Iraqi public is increasingly drawn toward a vision of a democratic, non-sectarian, and secular government for the country. The Iraqi support for secular politics is associated with a decline in support for religious parties.

Mansoor Moaddel, professor of sociology at Eastern Michigan University, uses four extensive data sets to show these changes in Iraqi political values. All the data are based on nationally representative samples in face-to-face interviews. The December 2004 and April 2006 surveys were National Science Foundation-funded projects supervised by Moaddel (Principal Investigator), Ronald Inglehart (co-PI), and Mark Tessler (co-PI). These data-sets contain 2,325 and 2,700 completed interviews, respectively. The other two surveys were supervised by the Assessment Effects, a group connected to the Multinational Forces in Iraq, and contained 7,912 and 7,945 completed interviews, respectively.

Speakers

• Mansoor Moaddel
  Professor of Sociology, Eastern Michigan University, and author of the survey
• Steven Kull, Discussant
  Director, Program on International Policy Attitudes
• Daniel Serwer, Moderator
  U.S. Institute of Peace

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