Democracy in The Middle East

Democracy In The Middle East

According to the "Democracy Index" (published by the Economist, a British journal), the country in the Middle East with the highest Democracy Index score is Israel, with a score of 7.53, corresponding to the status of "flawed democracy"; the only one in the region.

The next highest scores of countries of in the region are held by Turkey(7.73), and Lebanon (48.32), classified as "hybrid regime". Also in the "hybrid regimes" category are the Palestinian territories, Mauritania, Egypt and Iraq. The remaining countries of the Middle East are categorized as authoritarian regimes, with scores below 2 held by Iran, Syria and Saudi Arabia. Similarly, Freedom House categorizes Israel as "free", Tunisia, Lebanon, Turkey, Kuwait and Morocco as "Partially Free", and the remaining states as "Not Free" (including Western Sahara, which is controlled by Morocco). Events of the Arab Spring such as the Tunisian revolution may indicate a move towards democracy in some countries which may not be fully captured in the democracy index.

Theories are diverse on the subject. Revisionist theories argue that democracy is incompatible with Islamic culture and values, others put forward the development in the conceptualisation of political practices. They argue that the lack of a clear cut difference between religion and the state stifles democracy in the region. On the other hand, "post-colonial" theories (such as those put forth by Edward Said) for the relative absence of liberal democracy in the Middle East are diverse, from the long history of imperial rule by the Ottoman Empire, Britain and France and the contemporary political and military intervention by the United States, all of which have been blamed for preferring authoritarian regimes because this simplifies the business environment, while enriching the governing elite and the companies of the imperial countries. Other explanations include the problem that most of the states in the region are rentier states, which experience the theorized resource curse.

The mainstream advances the innovative approach adopted by political actors in interpreting religious texts which underpins that a gradual political opening is more efficient to reach democracy. As claims about the impact of civil society in the democratization process was put forward by the political economy approaches, the post-positivist interpretation stresses the importance to consider the interplay between culture, identity and discourse in framing Middle East politics.

Accordingly, this article traces the history and assesses the current state and future prospects of democracy, democratic tendencies, and democratic movements in all countries in the broadly-defined Middle East region.