March 28, 2004
The State of Arab Democracy? There's Such A Thing?
The AP has out a wonderful article, A Glance at State of Arab Democracy. Arab Democracy? What the.... Such an animal exists? So I decided to take a little closer look.
Here's the scary thought: Algeria is the closest to a functioning democracy in the Arab world so far.
Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Morocco, Oman, Saudi Arabia and Qatar are all monarchial governments. Libya, Syria, Sudan and Yemen are all dictatorships. Egypt professes democracy, but has one candidate on the ballot and he gains a Soviet style 90%+ share of the vote. Lebanon is effectively the southern province of Syria. The Palestinian Authority is a functional dictatorship without a nation. Tunisia is very similar to Egypt and the United Arab Emirates in a multi-monarchial society.
This is not intended to be a slam on any of the governments over there. It's merely pointing out that none of them are true democracies.
The astute reader will also note the absence of two of the big power players in the region: Iran and Iraq. Iran is not even close to be a democracy, but it is also not Arab. Iraq, as we all know, has been a dictatorship up until now, but in a few more months should be becoming the only functioning Arab democracy - whether it will be successful or not is yet to be seen.
The most important thing to remember here is that simply because many of these nations allow the people to vote on parliaments or advisory councils does not mean that they're a democracy.
As of this point in time, the state of Arab democracy is that there is none. Until Iraq votes on June 30 for its new government, it simply doesn't exist in that world.
That is the painful truth of Arab democracy.
I would argue that Iran is probably closer to democracy than a number of the monarchies of the Middle East. Although the mullahs hold supreme power, the last decade has seen at least some power accrete to the civilian popularly elected government.
And when it comes to the potential for democracy, Iran is probably the best hope in the region (outside of the U.S.-sponsored nascent democracy in Iraq). Iran boasts one of the most educated group of twentysomethings in the region -- and they're hungry for democracy. On a purely anthropological level, I hope that the United States (or any other power) does not intervene, as I would like to see where Iran goes. Of course, if Iran keeps up its nuclear aspirations, other nations might have to step in ...
Interestingly, Kurdistan is also not on your list. The Kurd-controlled areas of northern Iraq have effectively functioned as an independent democracy for around a decade now.
--|PW|--
Posted by: pennywit at March 28, 2004 06:52 PMI would agree that Iran probably has more potential for democracy, but the power that has trickled down to the people is still checked by an abolute veto of the mullahs. That really makes it no different than the "parliaments" or "advisory councils" of the monarchies. But the potential is there....
I'm not sure why I overlooked Kurdistan. I was basically going off the list that the AP was using, although I did add Iran. I try to be pretty good about remembering all aspects, but in this case, I blew it. Of course, I also forgot Turkey, although I'm not completely sure that they get classified as "Arab" either....
Good call.
Posted by: Chris at March 28, 2004 07:08 PMPlease do not use my bandwidth and storage for solicitations. Any solicitations are subject to deletion
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