Anderson Article Analysis

In her article, “The State in the Middle East and North Africa,” Anderson investigates the downsides of a number of past approaches to studying politics in MENA. She argues that by political scientists focusing on the state in their analysis’ in the MENA region, they are oversimplifying the political landscape and not accounting for the influence of religious institutions, tribal networks, and civil society organizations. Anderson also claims that political scientists often neglect the historical and cultural factors that shape politics in the MENA region, preventing them from fully understanding the region politically. She comments on the gravity of studying social movements, which tend to be overlooked by political scientists to instead study more formal political institutions. To avoid or compensate for the aforementioned problems in this course, it is vital that we take time to understand the role of non-state actors like civil society organizations, religious institutions, and social movements, as well as the way in which such influences interact with formal political institutions. It is also imperative that the Arab uprisings are a central topic of study, as they mark a significant turning point in MENA’s recent history. These uprisings led to the overthrow of autocratic regimes, and sparked debates about political reform.