| Sumario: | The excluded group in Kuwait is the stateless. The stateless people known popularly in Kuwait as the “Bedoons”, lack both citizenship and political rights. Their citizenship situation is complicated by the fact that they do not fall under the category “Kuwaiti” nor do they fall under the category of “non-Kuwaiti” in the sense of expatriates (guest workers from other countries with temporary residence in Kuwait). Summarizing the hypotheses about [Kuwaitis]' attitudes toward the inclusion of other groups, we expect different bases of support for the stateless. Those citizens who have advantages in the Kuwaiti social structure will want to protect that privilege by excluding the Bedoons from political participation. We also expect that being involved in Kuwaiti society through organizations and attention to current events should affect attitudes toward inclusion positively. We argue that those who agree with Pan-Arabism will be supportive of included groups, especially the Bedoons, because they are Arabs. They will also believe that stateless deserve rights of citizenship in a democratizing society. We expect an interaction effect between sect affiliation and support for Islamic nationalism on attitudes toward inclusion. We argue that Shia Islamists will be more supportive of including the stateless than Sunni Islamists. Finally, we expect measures of Islam to have a mixed effect. Those who follow the Islamic orthodoxy which advocates treating everyone with respect will be more willing to include the stateless, while those who follow certain Islamic practices will be less inclusive towards this group because they do not want to see major changes within Kuwait society. The findings point out a complex situation in terms of democratization in Kuwait and the politics of inclusion/exclusion that is associated with it. Men and Sunnis, who have advantaged positions in Kuwait, did not want to include the currently excluded groups. In terms of finding allies among citizens to support enfranchisement, Bedoons face difficulties with those particular groups On the other hand, the Bedoons are more disadvantaged. They lack support from basically all privileged groups, including liberals from elite families who see stateless rights as increasing the power of non urban Kuwaitis at their expense. However, the stateless have a larger base of support in the general Kuwaiti population (about 70% support stateless rights), and the stateless have the support of the organized opposition to the government in Kuwait. They have the support of the pan-Arabists, who are part of the secular opposition and have wide support in the general Kuwaiti population (about 50% of Kuwaitis support pan-Arabism), even though this in not reflected in parliamentary representation. More importantly, they have the support of the currently more powerful, Islamic nationalists. Islamists occupy twenty-one of the fifty seats in the National Assembly elected in 2003. Furthermore, in June 2004, Aljazeera.net reported that in April 2004, the opposition MPs walked out of a parliament session in protest over what they see as the government's failure and unwillingness to resolve the stateless issue.
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