Introduction

Political culture as an approach constitutes an essential means of understanding change within society. However, in the Middle East region, especially in the Arab countries, there have been relatively few studies that have dealt with political culture and political socialisation or focused on the people's beliefs, attitudes and values towards the government or political leaders.1 Undertaking such research in Arab countries, especially when using an empirical method such as survey research, has been very rare. This is because the regimes in power have generally been reluctant to allow opinion to be tested.