Democracy and its Challenges

2014

For several decades, an already classical controversy has been developed, regarding the compatibility between democracy, in its forms developed by Western political culture (real partitioning of power within the state and independence of institutions, constitutionalism, respect of human rights and liberties, liberty of expression, existence of an active civil society, normal relations between state and society etc.) and capacity of the state and society from the Arab-Muslim World to functionally assume such a model. In the case of latter, a series of characteristics is linked to authoritarian and patriarchal political transitions, to persistence of an economic, political and religious violence which affects the internal stability of society, the important role of army which interferes or even dominates the civilian political environment, fluidity of the national realities and attachments which are challenged by the persistence of certain ethnic, sectarian or regional solidarities, raising issues on the legitimacy of nation-states, projects of Islamist movements that promote their own models of state and society, constructed from a reinterpretation of Islamic tradition, etc. Based on these assumptions, in this paper I intend to review several specific elements that contribute to the regional conditioning of democratization processes, especially in the context of new political and security dynamics, after the Arab Spring, the possibilities of democratization in the Middle East and North Africa, which have experienced tendencies of authoritarianism and especially an ascending fragmentation of the state order and stability, that has emerged as one of the recurrent analysis themes for specialists and decision makers.

2010

Essays collected in this volume explores different aspects of democracy in lsrael, Jordan and Turkey. Procedura! democracy may be viewed as consisting of two fundamental dimensions: political participation of citizens and social groups and competitiveness amongst politica I actors. Both of them may be discussed on the level of political institutions and political behavior of certain actors. Two Middle Eastern democracies - lsrael and Turkey as well as plural­ized autocracy-Jordan, despite significant differences, share some similar problems concerning limits of political participation and fears of restricted competitiveness. Those dilemmas of democracy in the Middle East have been extensively discussed in this volume.

Choice Reviews Online, 2004

The United Nations University is an organ of the United Nations established by the General Assembly in 1972 to be an international community of scholars engaged in research, advanced training, and the dissemination of knowledge related to the pressing global problems of human survival, development, and welfare. Its activities focus mainly on the areas of peace and governance, environment and sustainable development, and science and technology in relation to human welfare. The University operates through a worldwide network of research and postgraduate training centres, with its planning and coordinating headquarters in Tokyo. The United Nations University Press, the publishing division of the UNU, publishes scholarly and policy-oriented books and periodicals in areas related to the University's research. Changing Nature of Democracy The United Nations University Press series on the Changing Nature of Democracy addresses the debates and challenges that have arisen as ''democratic'' forms of governance have blossomed globally. The march of democracy has defined the close of the twentieth century; the fulfillment of individual and collective aspirations, good governance, and the nurturing of civil society form the benchmark of political organization. However, democracy defies a universal model, and the definition of democracy continues to be elusive. Moreover, the performance of democracy often fails to live up to its promise. This series explores two areas. First, it examines the theoretical discourse of democracy, such as the tension between procedure and substance, the dialectic between principles and institutions, the challenge of reconciliation and peace-building in democratic transition, the balance between universal and communitarian notions of democracy, between participation and efficiency, and between capital and welfare. Secondly, the series explores how these themes and others have been demonstrated, with varying The idea for this book has its origin in a multi-year, multi-case-study project (and subsequently multi-volume book series) of the United Nations University's Peace and Governance Programme on the Changing Nature of Democracy. The overall project has so far produced one thematic volume, as well as case-study volumes on Central and Eastern Europe, East and Southeast Asia, and Latin America. Each volume features its own thematic focus, although in the context of evolving democratization trends within and between the countries of their respective regions. This volume in the series, written by a group of scholars and scholar/ practitioners, reports on democratization in the Middle East. The volume examines the role of a number of key issues in determining success and failure in introducing and solidifying democratization processes in the countries of the region. With this volume we hope to engage a broad audience -the general public, concerned citizens, policy and scholarly communities -in the academic and political analysis of democratization trends, challenges, and constraints in this culturally rich, yet conflictridden region of the world. We are grateful to a number of individuals and institutions who have helped us carry this project to this stage. We acknowledge the financial and administrative assistance of the United Nations University (UNU) in Tokyo. Yoshie Sawada of the Peace and Governance Programme has provided invaluable assistance in administering the technical, organizational, and financial aspects of this project. We are indebted to the Jordan ix Institute of Diplomacy, its then-President Kamel Abu S. Jaber, as well as his assistant, Raghda Quandour, for hosting an extremely fruitful planning meeting of the project's contributors in December 1999. We thank the UNU Press, particularly Gareth Johnston, for their patient and expert assistance throughout the preparation of this manuscript. We are grateful to Monica Blagescu and Nargiza Lukmanova for editorial assistance with the various revisions of the manuscript for submission to the UNU Press. We further express our gratitude to Liz Paton for copyediting the manuscript and to the book's three anonymous reviewers, whose comments and suggestions have been very helpful in finalizing the volume. We are grateful to our contributors for the thoughtful preparation of their chapters, their diligence in responding to feedback from the editors and peer reviewers, and their patience in updating their contributions in response to a rapidly changing situation in the Middle East. Finally, we thank our families for their encouragement and support throughout the preparation of this volume. Amin Saikal is also indebted to Carol Laslett for her support in looking after his office affairs while he has been involved in this and several other similar projects. It is our hope that, in the long run, the peoples of the Middle East will be able to enjoy a life of peace, justice, and prosperity. We believe that this requires continued efforts towards genuine democratization. Although we are hopeful for a positive future, we are saddened by the violence and injustice that still ravage much of the region. Our volume is therefore dedicated to the many innocent victims of the current political environment throughout much of the Middle East.

2004

The Political Quarterly, 2006

2012

The Arab Spring struck the Middle East to the core as popular uprisings landed in Tunisia then Egypt, Libya followed suit after Yemen, yet the course of events was doomed when the process was held up in Syria, bringing the issue of democracy in the Arab region to the fore. Enthusiasm towards fully-fledged democracy has been mounting and demonstrators calling for freedom, human rights and democracy have never stopped, although the revolts succeeded in toppling a number of autocratic regimes and "fair" elections were held. The parties, who failed in the elections, and their supporters, accuse the winners of cheating, fraud and falsifying the results. This is not an attribute unique to elections in the Arab region as many democratized societies behave the same way in similar circumstances (the latest case was in Bulgaria). Nevertheless, the opposition sparked a new spate of demonstrations aiming to topple, obstruct or thwart the rule of the newly elected elites. On the other hand, the winners were accused of wrongdoings and practices that are deemed to enhance and consolidate their own rule. In an attempt to keep readers abreast, this article will try to explain the term democracy in the Arab world, tackling both historical and practical contours. The first part will review the status of democracy in the Arab region from a historical perspective; while the second part will discuss its viability as pertains to the current state of affairs.

The purpose of this study is to classify and explain democracies in the 47 Muslim countries between the years 1998 to 2008 by using liberties and elections as main independent variables. Specifically, in the Muslim world context, this study attempts to answer the following questions - how was the performance of civil liberties and elections; which variation of democracy was practiced most; and how did the elections, civil liberties and democratic transitions take place and what patterns did they follow. Based on the quantitative data primarily collected from Freedom House, this study demonstrates the aggregate findings as follows - firstly, the ‘not free not fair’ elections, the ‘limited’ civil liberties and the ‘Illiberal Partial Democracy’ were the most dominant nature of election, civil liberties and democracy practiced in the Muslim world; secondly, a sum of 413 Muslim regimes out of 470 (47 regimes x 10 years) remained the same as their democratic origin points, without any transitions to a better or worse levels of democracy, throughout these 10 years; and thirdly, a slow, yet steady positive transition of both elections and civil liberties occurred in the Muslim world with changes in the nature of elections becoming much more progressive compared to the civil liberties’ transitions.