About

Mark Tessler is the Samuel J. Eldersveld Collegiate Professor of Political Science at the University of Michigan. He specializes in Comparative Politics and Middle East Studies, with extensive field research experience in Tunisia, Israel, Morocco, Egypt, and Palestine. He is one of the few American scholars to have studied and lived for extended periods in both the Arab world and Israel, and has also spent several years teaching and consulting in Sub-Saharan Africa. Professor Tessler's scholarly work primarily examines the attitudes, values, and political implications among ordinary citizens in the Middle East. He has authored sixteen books, including 'Religious Minorities in Non-Secular Middle Eastern and North African States' (2020), 'Public Opinion in the Middle East: Survey Research and the Political Orientations of Ordinary Citizens' (2011), and 'Islam, Democracy and the State in Algeria: Lessons for the Western Mediterranean and Beyond' (2005). His 2015 book, 'Islam and Politics in the Middle East: Explaining the Views of Ordinary Citizens,' is based on 42 nationally representative surveys conducted across 15 countries between 1988 and 2013, exploring perceptions of Islam's role in government and politics. He is a co-founder and co-director of the Arab Barometer Survey project, which has conducted multiple waves of surveys across Arab countries, gathering data from over 100,000 citizens. This project has been recognized for its contribution to comparative politics data. Additionally, Professor Tessler authored 'Social Science Research in the Arab World and Beyond: A Guide for Students, Instructors, and Researchers' (2022), which discusses social science research methods and has been translated into Arabic. His research also extensively covers the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with his book 'A History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict' (first published in 1994 and updated in 2009) receiving national honors and recognition as a notable book of the year by The New York Times.

Research topics

• Political Science
• Law
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Economics
• Epistemology
• Philosophy
• Statistics
• Mathematics
• Econometrics
• Political economy

Selected publications

• The Impact of Xenophobia on Agricultural Trade in South Africa

  2024-07-01

  dissertationSenior author

  The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K/Pg) event caused the extinction of many species in the ocean and on land. Varying rates of plankton survival and puzzling changes in the marine carbon cycle recorded in proxy records are of particular interest to paleoclimatologists, as are the seemingly rapid temperature changes recorded after the extinction event. This thesis uses the Community Earth System Model (CESM) to simulate the Chicxulub asteroid impact, which is thought to be the cause of the K/Pg extinction. The model was used to simulate the Maastrichtian Age ocean, and results were analyzed to understand pre-impact plankton dynamics and their agreement with proxy data. Different sets of impact forcings were used to assess possible changes in ocean productivity, export, and carbon isotope values. Forcings showed that the impact led to significant cooling that increased ocean nutrient availability, leading to a significant spike in net primary productivity. Post-impact changes in particulate organic carbon export were variable, but in simulations where CO2 emissions from impact were highest, export was lowest. Warming oceans associated with high CO2 also caused increases in small phytoplankton (pico- and nanoplankton) productivity and decreases in diatom productivity. Alterations in the δ13C value of atmospheric carbon forced by wildfire emissions drive negative excursions in surface δ13Ccarbonate and δ13Corg consistent with proxy evidence, but questions remain around the how the δ13Corg excursion was resolved while the δ13Ccarbonate excursion continued during the same period.

  PublisherDOI

• After the Uprising: the Intifada-Oslo Generation and Attitudes Toward the Palestinian Police

  Figshare · 2022-01-01

  datasetOpen accessSenior author

  Does experiencing a mass uprising during one’s formative years shape attitudes toward post-uprising institutions? Existing research on cohorts has not examined settings of ongoing statelessness. We focus on Palestinians who witnessed the First Intifada and subsequent Israeli-Palestinian negotiations during their youth-to- adulthood transition. Analyzing a pooled sample of surveys conducted between 1996 and 2000, we observe that men from this cohort – using a youth-based definition of one’s formative years – evaluated the Palestinian police more negatively than did other men, ceteris paribus. We test two, potential explanations. We find support for the proposition that men from this cohort held distinctive views about coercion and resistance that shaped their evaluations. We conclude that experiencing mass mobilization and transition during one’s formative years can influence attitudes, but additional work is needed to test for their long-term endurance. Further, a younger operationalization of one’s impressionable years may be salient in settings of insecurity.

  PublisherDOI

• Social Science Research in the Arab World and Beyond

  SpringerBriefs in sociology · 2022-10-03

  bookOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  This open access book presents and discusses the logic and method of social science research adapted for use in Arab countries.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Univariate Analysis: Variance, Variables, Data, and Measurement

  SpringerBriefs in sociology · 2022-10-03 · 1 citations

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Why are some people in the Arab region more likely than others to vote in elections? Why do some countries but not others have higher levels of satisfaction with their healthcare systems? Why is domestic violence more prevalent in some communities or neighborhoods than others? What causes some people but not others to become more politically engaged, or less politically engaged, over time? Every day, we come across various phenomena that make us question how, why, and with what implications do they vary across people, countries, communities, and/or time. These phenomena—e.g. voting, satisfaction with health care, domestic violence, and political engagement—are variables, and the variance they express is the foundation and the point of departure for positivist social science research. The present chapter considers variables one at a time and focuses on descriptions of variance.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The long-term electoral implications of conflict escalation: Doubtful doves and the breakdown of Israel’s left–right dichotomy

  Journal of Peace Research · 2022 · 17 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  • Political Science
  • Political Science
  • Sociology

  Abstract What prolonged implications does conflict escalation have on voting behavior? The literature focuses primarily on the immediate effect of violent events on voting in nearby elections, leaving open questions about longer-term consequences. This article examines this question by studying Israel, where violent escalation in the Israeli–Palestinian conflict in the early 2000s was followed by an unexpected electoral outcome: the emergence and consolidation of a new centrist bloc that transformed a longstanding Left-Right partisan divide into a three-bloc system. Using two decades of survey data, it is argued that this shift is best explained by a long-term attitudinal change toward the conflict by many Israelis after the escalation. Rather than a strictly hawkish shift, many voters have become ‘Doubtful Doves’: supportive of territorial compromise in principle, but skeptical about reaching an agreement with the Palestinians in practice. This underdiscussed attitudinal structure, dovish but doubtful, has formed a new electoral base for centrist parties, breaking the traditional Left-Right dichotomy. These findings illustrate that violent periods in conflicts can cause non-trivial long-term changes in popular attitude structures and voting patterns, which, under the right conditions, can trigger electoral re-equilibration.

  PublisherDOI

• Polarized and Demobilized: Legacies of Authoritarianism in Palestine. Dana El Kurd (London: Hurst, 2019). Pp. 240. £45.00 hardback. ISBN: 9781787382138

  International Journal Middle East Studies · 2022-11-01

  article1st authorCorresponding

  An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content.

  PublisherDOI

• Bivariate Analysis: Associations, Hypotheses, and Causal Stories

  SpringerBriefs in sociology · 2022 · 1 citations

  1st authorCorresponding
  • Psychology
  • Econometrics
  • Statistics

  Abstract Every day, we encounter various phenomena that make us question how, why, and with what implications they vary. In responding to these questions, we often begin by considering bivariate relationships, meaning the way that two variables relate to one another. Such relationships are the focus of this chapter.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Reprise and Conclusion: Overview, Audience, and Uses of the Guide

  SpringerBriefs in sociology · 2022-10-03

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract It will be useful in concluding this guide to social science research to return to some of the points made in the Introduction, reminding readers about the origins of this guide to social science research in the Arab world and about the choices that have been made with respect to coverage and emphasis. The way that the information and insights presented in Chaps. 2 , 3 , and 4 come together and cumulate should also be noted. Finally, and importantly, we offer very briefly some thoughts about the audience for whom the guide is intended, about the ways in which the guide might be productively used, particularly in education, and about the ways in which and the degree to which the guide possesses an Arab sensibility.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Introduction: Origins, Approach, and an Arab Sensibility

  SpringerBriefs in sociology · 2022-10-03

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This guide offers readers a concise overview of the elements of social science research, from topic to design to data and analysis. By incorporating examples of research in Arab societies and including exercises using data from the Arab Barometer survey project, the guide situates social scientific concepts and methods in the social and political environment of the Arab world. It will, therefore, be of particular relevance to social scientists who study the Arab region, including, and perhaps especially, Arab scholars who conduct social science research.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Multivariate Analysis: Causation, Control, and Conditionality

  SpringerBriefs in sociology · 2022-10-03 · 3 citations

  book-chapterOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract Theory building and data analyses based on three or more variables offer many possibilities for refining the design and increasing both the sophistication and accuracy of a research project. The chapter discusses control variables and other considerations relating to causal inference. It aso devotes attention to other “third variable” possibilities.

  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• The Nature and Determinants of Regime Preference and Political Values in Jordan, Kuwait, and Palestine: Implications for Arab Politics and for the Study of Governance and Democracy

  NSF · $223k · 2002–2008

Frequent coauthors

• Ina Warriner

  53 shared

• Gerald Easter

  Kellogg's (Canada)

  52 shared

• A. James McAdams

  52 shared

• Adam Przeworski

  52 shared

• Fernando Limongi

  Escola de Economia de São Paulo

  52 shared

• Fernando Llmongi

  Universidade de São Paulo

  36 shared

• Daniel Treisman

  University of California, Los Angeles

  36 shared

• Suzanne Berger

  IIT@MIT

  16 shared

Awards & honors

• Carnegie Scholar award from the Carnegie Corporation of New…
• best new data set in comparative politics by the American Po…
• Notable Book of the Year by The New York Times (1994)