In The True Clash of Civilizations, Ronald Inglehart and Pippa Norris examine results from the World Values Survey:
At this point in history, societies throughout the world (Muslim and Judeo-Christian alike) see democracy as the best form of government. Instead, the real fault line between the West and Islam, which Huntington’s theory completely overlooks, concerns gender equality and sexual liberalization.
Of course, this raises the question, what does “democracy” mean to these people?
Inglehart and Norris contend that gender equality and sexual liberalization are better indicators of “true” liberal, democratic culture:
However, when it comes to attitudes toward gender equality and sexual liberalization, the cultural gap between Islam and the West widens into a chasm. [...] These issues are part of a broader syndrome of tolerance, trust, political activism, and emphasis on individual autonomy that constitutes “self-expression values.” The extent to which a society emphasizes these self-expression values has a surprisingly strong bearing on the emergence and survival of democratic institutions. Among all the countries included in the WVS, support for gender equality — a key indicator of tolerance and personal freedom — is closely linked with a society’s level of democracy.
My first thought is that 18th- and 19th-century Americans would not disagree with the statement that “men make better political leaders than women,” they wouldn’t find homosexuality “justifiable,” and they’d most likely agree that “politicians who do not believe in God are unfit for public office” — yet they established a religiously tolerant, limited government.