Political Science

Democracy and Authoritarianism in Middle East

Introduction

Democracy is the political regime in which the people of a particular region or nation are sovereign. The formula of democracy as advocated by Abraham Lincoln is "government of the people, by the people, for the people".

Generally speaking, a democratic government can be defined as practical opportunities for the people to control their leaders, and to oust them without the need for a revolution. This is starkly in contrast to a scenario where dictatorship, tyranny, or authoritarianism is prevalent.

Conclusively, democracy provides every individual of the state with equal opportunities to express their views on multiple disciplines, such as opinions on political, social and economic issues through their votes. This enables citizens of a particular country to indirectly decide all the pertinent policies and laws of the nation by directly electing and voting for the right candidate(s) and/or party. The chosen candidates represent the public in the assembly and thus are liable for formulating and executing the right and desired policies.

Discussion

Roger Owen describes the Middle East as a space that is “resilient” to democracy. Is this the case?

Despite the increasing emphasis and prevalence of democracy in the 21st century, there are certain region in the world, where democracy is either a rigidly controlled phenomenon or it is totally absent. An increasing number of countries transformed and reverted to democratic processes after the culmination of the Second World War and the truncation of the colonization process. Nevertheless, the Arab region, particularly Middle East never became democratic (LAQUEUR 1958, pp. 245-290).

The commonly cited reasons for the absence of democracy in the Arab world are the presence of unique characteristics and variables, such as culture and religion. However, this paper will analyse the above mentioned issue in the light of famous British author, writer and Harvard professor, Roger Owen. Moreover, the paper will also discuss the main problems in the study of politics in the Middle East.

In order to understand the views forwarded by Roger Owen and the outward appearance of resilience from the Arab world towards democracy is embedded in various factors. First of all, the cultural heritage of the Arab world when combined with the religion of Islam is often mistakenly deemed as an obstacle in the path towards democracy. It should be noted, that historically, as well as, currently, the religion of Islam is susceptible to various interpretations (OWEN 2000, pp. 125-168).

A much more relevant explanation for the failure of the Arab world to pursue democracy is the insistence and often coercive measures of many Arab governments to execute conventional forms of government and order that comprises of a power system which is based on patriarchal or ancestral lineages. This system precludes public participation, i.e. democratic process and is often justified falsely by religious reasons. Another major historical reason for the hindrances against democracy is the political development which emerged during the military coups of the 1950's and the 1960's. This development by largely based on the discovery of Black Gold and the subsequent ...