Voting Behaviors of Muslim Minorities in Europe
New publication by CIIR's member Dr Gülseli Baysu: "What Determines Voting Behaviors of Muslim Minorities in Europe: Muslim Identity or Lef-Right Ideology?"
The new paper of Gülseli Baysu and Marc Swyngedouw analyses determinants of voting behaviour among Turkish-Muslim minorities in Belgium. The researchers asked whether left‐right ideology or religious identity predicted their voting in their country of residence and origin, besides typical predictors of right‐wing voting (i.e., efficacy, deprivation, and authoritarianism). Authoritarianism, low political efficacy, and high deprivation predicted voting for right‐wing parties in Turkey, whereas the latter two, surprisingly, predicted voting for the left in Belgium. Moreover, while “strict” Muslims voted for right‐wing parties in Turkey, ideology did not predict their voting. Conversely, in Belgium, while Muslim identity did not predict their voting, ideology did. “Moderate” Muslims voted based on their ideology—right‐leaning voting for the right, whereas “strict” Muslims voted according to their interests as a disadvantaged minority in Belgium—thus voting for the left—or as a devout Muslim in Turkey—thus voting for the right.
