
Democracy in the Middle East is considered by many to be rarer than in other parts of the world, but this is disputed by many governments in the region, many of whom claim to be democratic. Proposed reasons for the relative lack of democracy in the Middle East are diverse, from the resource curse of inexpensive oil and gas reserves to interfering foreign involvement from the U.S. and others. 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. ==History== The concept of democracy was little-favored in the ancient Middle East, as indeed in most of the world. However, some have seen the Islamic concept of shura as an early form of popular representation, and in some areas of North Africa the traditional Berber system of self-government has been seen by some as approximating to democracy at a village level. ==Current state== The level of democracy varies widely from country to country. A few countries, such as Saudi Arabia, do not claim to be democracies; however, most of the larger states claim to be democracies, although this claim is in most cases disputed. ===Arab Socialism=== A number of republics embracing Arab Socialism, such as Syria and Egypt, regularly hold elections, but critics assert that these are single-party states or unfair dominant-party systems and not full multi-party systems. Yemen, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority, while also partly accepting this ideology, are generally considered more democratic than other states that do so, but the power of institutions in the latter two are limited by the domination of Syria and Israel, respectively. ===Absolute monarchy=== Absolute monarchy is more common in the Middle East than elsewhere, and even a number of kingdoms with parliaments have been claimed to fall broadly under this category. Saudi Arabia and most other kingdoms on the Arabian Peninsula are usually considered absolute monarchies. ===Constitutional monarchy=== Constitutional monarchy can be said to be at least partly embraced in some countries that are generally considered more democratic. Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain are examples of this category. ===Islamism=== Islamism in Iran following the Iranian Revolution of 1979 has produced an electoral system that is limited by the vetoing power of religious leaders. In other countries, the ideology (usually out of power) has fostered both pro-democratic and anti-democratic sentiments. The Justice and Development Party (Turkey) is a moderate democratic Islamist party that has come to power in traditionally secular Turkey. Its moderate ideology has been compared to Christian Democracy in Europe. The United Iraqi Alliance, the winner of the recent elections in Iraq, is a coalition including many religious parties. Al-Qaeda and its allies, however, are deeply anti-democratic Islamists, believing that since sharia represents God's law, there is no place for law made by men. ===Israel/Palestine=== Israel is usually considered to be a democracy within its 1948 borders, but not in its administration of the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises only limited sovereignty, has generally been considered to be more open than most Arab governments, particularly in light of the most recent presidential election. ==Secularism== Secularism in the region was pioneered by Kemal Atatürk, who, though he himself had some authoritarian tendencies, helped establish the first modern Middle Eastern democracy in Turkey. Arab Socialism has also fostered secularism, though sometimes in what has been seen as a less democratic context. Secularism is not the same as freedom of religion, and secular governments have at times denied the rights of Islamists and other religious parties. A trend of a more liberal secularism supporting broader freedom of religion has developed recently in Turkey, while some Arab Socialist states have moved away from secularism to some extent, increasingly embracing religion, though many say without really increasing the rights of religious parties. ==Western intervention== After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, many of the empire's former territories fell under the rule of European countries under League of Nations mandates. Thus, European powers were instrumental in establishing the first independent governments that emerged out of the Ottoman Empire. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed for allies in the region and the U.S. has been accused of supporting dictatorships contrary to its stated democratic principles. The U.S., with some allies, has in recent years invaded Afghanistan and Iraq with a partially stated purpose of establishing democracies there, to the opposition of those who say that democracy cannot be imposed from outside. The two countries have since had relatively successful elections, but have also experienced serious security and development problems. ==External links== * [http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=16643#how Democracy in Yemen] Middle East Forms of government
I thought I'd kick of the talk page here! Off the top of my head we might want to include: * Historical context: ** end of the Ottoman Empire (the concepts of umta and millet (Ottoman Empire)), ** nationalism ** and USA/European involvement (oil, war promises, League of Nations mandates). * Hashemite monarchy — perhaps something on the role of Middle Eastern social structures informing modes of governance. * The effect of minority rule (e.g. Alawite-led government of Syria, Sunni-led goverment in Iraq. * The forces of modernisation versus religion in Egypt and Iran. Some food for thought? User:Garzo 22:56, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC) Definitely food for thought, and important for constructing this article. These are all good topics, and I hope we can go for a topical approach (as opposed to country by country) as much as possible. The importance of minorities (both in power and out) in particular is something that perhaps isn't talked about enough. I think we can make good progress filling out these important topics.--User:Pharos 00:51, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) : Clarification: do you mean "the Middle East", or "the Middle East and North Africa"? If the former, Morocco seems a dubious candidate to invoke. - User:Mustafaa 01:05, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) I had meant to use a broad definition of Middle East, including North Africa, simply because the areas are connected culturally, politically etc. The linguistic distinction is not a major issue to me either way (I know its a little silly geographically to call North Africa part of the "Middle East"), but I think it's useful to treat them together.--User:Pharos 01:11, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) Fair enough; but in that case, maybe we should move it to "Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa". - User:Mustafaa 01:21, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) That's OK with me, but I hope we wouldn't have to change the name again to include a little about Afghanistan.--User:Pharos 01:34, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) I would have thought Afghanistan didn't belong here at all. Are you sure you don't mean "Democracy in the Muslim world"? - User:Mustafaa 01:39, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) *I know, I know, regions of the world aren't exactly defined, and Afghanistan is further from the "Middle East" than North Africa, but noone can say whether Afghanistan is in Central Asia or South Asia either. I recognize that Afghanistan is really a very borderline case, but considering recent history it's probably something that should be talked about to some extent at least. Pakistan, for me, would definitely be going too far (no, I'm definitely not talking about "the Muslim world").--User:Pharos 01:50, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) FYI, there is an Islamic democracy article that might be useful to reference at appropriate places. - User:BanyanTreeUser:BanyanTreeUser talk:BanyanTree 04:40, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) OK one can't include Afganistan in the Middle East anymore than you can include California in the MidWest. If you Include North Africa You really should change the name to "Democracy in Countries Conquered int he first wave of Muslim Expansion which Still Have a Muslim Majority" The Most important section is or should be on Baathism which mat at the moment be not doing that well but reamains the great home for democracy. --User:81.138.194.190 18:09, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC) :I feel there is a cohesion of experience between those places that developed sovereignty from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (that is old definition Middle East). The Maghreb and Afghanistan, although related to these in some ways, have had quite different experiences over the last century. However, I feel that the inclusion of Iran would be an important factor as Iran has been bound by experience to the former Ottoman states to its west. :Nobody has mentioned it yet, but we are really talking about Israel and Palestine as well here. Now, that's a few pages all by itself, but needs to be factored in without being allowed to dominate the thread of the article. User:Garzo 18:43, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC) I take your point; I would be rather inclined to have separate articles on Democracy in the Maghreb and Democracy in Central Asia. - User:Mustafaa 20:38, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)
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Democracy in the Middle East
Democracy in the Middle East is considered by many to be rarer than in other parts of the world, but this is disputed by many governments in the region, many of whom claim to be democratic. Proposed reasons for the relative lack of democracy in the Middle East are diverse, from the resource curse of inexpensive oil and gas reserves to interfering foreign involvement from the U.S. and others. 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. ==History== The concept of democracy was little-favored in the ancient Middle East, as indeed in most of the world. However, some have seen the Islamic concept of shura as an early form of popular representation, and in some areas of North Africa the traditional Berber system of self-government has been seen by some as approximating to democracy at a village level. ==Current state== The level of democracy varies widely from country to country. A few countries, such as Saudi Arabia, do not claim to be democracies; however, most of the larger states claim to be democracies, although this claim is in most cases disputed. ===Arab Socialism=== A number of republics embracing Arab Socialism, such as Syria and Egypt, regularly hold elections, but critics assert that these are single-party states or unfair dominant-party systems and not full multi-party systems. Yemen, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority, while also partly accepting this ideology, are generally considered more democratic than other states that do so, but the power of institutions in the latter two are limited by the domination of Syria and Israel, respectively. ===Absolute monarchy=== Absolute monarchy is more common in the Middle East than elsewhere, and even a number of kingdoms with parliaments have been claimed to fall broadly under this category. Saudi Arabia and most other kingdoms on the Arabian Peninsula are usually considered absolute monarchies. ===Constitutional monarchy=== Constitutional monarchy can be said to be at least partly embraced in some countries that are generally considered more democratic. Morocco, Jordan, Kuwait and Bahrain are examples of this category. ===Islamism=== Islamism in Iran following the Iranian Revolution of 1979 has produced an electoral system that is limited by the vetoing power of religious leaders. In other countries, the ideology (usually out of power) has fostered both pro-democratic and anti-democratic sentiments. The Justice and Development Party (Turkey) is a moderate democratic Islamist party that has come to power in traditionally secular Turkey. Its moderate ideology has been compared to Christian Democracy in Europe. The United Iraqi Alliance, the winner of the recent elections in Iraq, is a coalition including many religious parties. Al-Qaeda and its allies, however, are deeply anti-democratic Islamists, believing that since sharia represents God's law, there is no place for law made by men. ===Israel/Palestine=== Israel is usually considered to be a democracy within its 1948 borders, but not in its administration of the Palestinian territories. The Palestinian Authority, which exercises only limited sovereignty, has generally been considered to be more open than most Arab governments, particularly in light of the most recent presidential election. ==Secularism== Secularism in the region was pioneered by Kemal Atatürk, who, though he himself had some authoritarian tendencies, helped establish the first modern Middle Eastern democracy in Turkey. Arab Socialism has also fostered secularism, though sometimes in what has been seen as a less democratic context. Secularism is not the same as freedom of religion, and secular governments have at times denied the rights of Islamists and other religious parties. A trend of a more liberal secularism supporting broader freedom of religion has developed recently in Turkey, while some Arab Socialist states have moved away from secularism to some extent, increasingly embracing religion, though many say without really increasing the rights of religious parties. ==Western intervention== After the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, many of the empire's former territories fell under the rule of European countries under League of Nations mandates. Thus, European powers were instrumental in establishing the first independent governments that emerged out of the Ottoman Empire. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed for allies in the region and the U.S. has been accused of supporting dictatorships contrary to its stated democratic principles. The U.S., with some allies, has in recent years invaded Afghanistan and Iraq with a partially stated purpose of establishing democracies there, to the opposition of those who say that democracy cannot be imposed from outside. The two countries have since had relatively successful elections, but have also experienced serious security and development problems. ==External links== * [http://www.carnegieendowment.org/publications/index.cfm?fa=view&id=16643#how Democracy in Yemen] Middle East Forms of government
Democracy in the Middle East
I thought I'd kick of the talk page here! Off the top of my head we might want to include: * Historical context: ** end of the Ottoman Empire (the concepts of umta and millet (Ottoman Empire)), ** nationalism ** and USA/European involvement (oil, war promises, League of Nations mandates). * Hashemite monarchy — perhaps something on the role of Middle Eastern social structures informing modes of governance. * The effect of minority rule (e.g. Alawite-led government of Syria, Sunni-led goverment in Iraq. * The forces of modernisation versus religion in Egypt and Iran. Some food for thought? User:Garzo 22:56, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC) Definitely food for thought, and important for constructing this article. These are all good topics, and I hope we can go for a topical approach (as opposed to country by country) as much as possible. The importance of minorities (both in power and out) in particular is something that perhaps isn't talked about enough. I think we can make good progress filling out these important topics.--User:Pharos 00:51, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) : Clarification: do you mean "the Middle East", or "the Middle East and North Africa"? If the former, Morocco seems a dubious candidate to invoke. - User:Mustafaa 01:05, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) I had meant to use a broad definition of Middle East, including North Africa, simply because the areas are connected culturally, politically etc. The linguistic distinction is not a major issue to me either way (I know its a little silly geographically to call North Africa part of the "Middle East"), but I think it's useful to treat them together.--User:Pharos 01:11, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) Fair enough; but in that case, maybe we should move it to "Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa". - User:Mustafaa 01:21, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) That's OK with me, but I hope we wouldn't have to change the name again to include a little about Afghanistan.--User:Pharos 01:34, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) I would have thought Afghanistan didn't belong here at all. Are you sure you don't mean "Democracy in the Muslim world"? - User:Mustafaa 01:39, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) *I know, I know, regions of the world aren't exactly defined, and Afghanistan is further from the "Middle East" than North Africa, but noone can say whether Afghanistan is in Central Asia or South Asia either. I recognize that Afghanistan is really a very borderline case, but considering recent history it's probably something that should be talked about to some extent at least. Pakistan, for me, would definitely be going too far (no, I'm definitely not talking about "the Muslim world").--User:Pharos 01:50, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) FYI, there is an Islamic democracy article that might be useful to reference at appropriate places. - User:BanyanTreeUser:BanyanTreeUser talk:BanyanTree 04:40, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC) OK one can't include Afganistan in the Middle East anymore than you can include California in the MidWest. If you Include North Africa You really should change the name to "Democracy in Countries Conquered int he first wave of Muslim Expansion which Still Have a Muslim Majority" The Most important section is or should be on Baathism which mat at the moment be not doing that well but reamains the great home for democracy. --User:81.138.194.190 18:09, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC) :I feel there is a cohesion of experience between those places that developed sovereignty from the collapse of the Ottoman Empire (that is old definition Middle East). The Maghreb and Afghanistan, although related to these in some ways, have had quite different experiences over the last century. However, I feel that the inclusion of Iran would be an important factor as Iran has been bound by experience to the former Ottoman states to its west. :Nobody has mentioned it yet, but we are really talking about Israel and Palestine as well here. Now, that's a few pages all by itself, but needs to be factored in without being allowed to dominate the thread of the article. User:Garzo 18:43, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC) I take your point; I would be rather inclined to have separate articles on Democracy in the Maghreb and Democracy in Central Asia. - User:Mustafaa 20:38, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)
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