Political development in Jordan from 1988 until the present

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore, describe, explain, and critique the political development process in Jordan from the inception of the state until the present time by focusing upon three questions. (1) What were the contributions of education, economic, and urbanization variables? (2) How did tribalism and communalism influence the political development process? (3) How did the political reform of 1989 influence political participation, interest and information, political efficacy, political trust and freedom of expression and association?;The study traces the historical evolution of the political development process in Jordan from 1921 until the political reform of 1989. Between 1921-1946 the process was encumbered by numerous factors such as the colonial power, the political elite and the social structure of Transjordan.;The period extending from 1947-1968 was characterized by competition between political forces. Therefore, the process did not take place within a framework of broad agreement. This limited consensus contributed to political instability, and generally reversed the political development process.;During the period 1969-1988, the political development process took a serious turn as a result of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank. The growth of the Palestinian resistance movement presented the monarchy with its most serious opposition and adversely affected the country's entire political development process.;In consideration of the second question of the dissertation, evidence demonstrates the influence of education, economics, and urbanization on the political development process. These three variables encouraged the growth of political institutions by creating an appropriate climate for changing the social, economic, and demographic structure of Jordanian society. The political elite's willingness to encourage the political development process could be regarded as the most critical factor.;The influences of communalism and tribalism are examined as factors hindering the political development process. Empirical evidence illustrates that community cleavage between East and West Bankers continued to be a threat to the political development process. Tribalism became one of the major obstacles to building Jordan's nationalism.;Finally, the study examines the impact of political reform of 1989 upon various democratic norms. The data indicate relatively moderate consensus among Jordanian citizens. They generally appeared to be politically informed, interested and active in political practice. Conversely, consensus on other democratic norms was low among Jordanians. Distrust and dissatisfaction with the government institution does exist.