POLS 157 Chapter Notes - Chapter NA: The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Inklings, Authoritarianism, Civil Society
6 Apr 2020
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The robustness of authoritarianism in the middle east, eva bellin. Only two out of 21 countries in the middle east and north africa qualify as electoral democracies: the number of countries designated as free by freedom house has vastly increased everywhere else in the world. There has been no overall improvement in the middle east and north africa. None of the above explanations are satisfying because the region is in no way unique in any of the above ways: regions similarly deprived of the above requisites have managed to transition to democracy. Evidence suggests that democratization is a complex outcome and no single available can universally be necessary or sufficient for explaining it. Cumulative failure to achieve the prerequisites of democracy clearly undermines its growth: but it cannot alone explain the failure to democratically transition because other countries have done it. The region has experienced some inklings of democratic impulse: fledgling emergence of civil society groups.
