Month: December 2023

New Tools for a Unique Region

After finishing my first political science class centered on the MENA region, my understanding of authoritarianism and change in the region has grown immensely. Before this class, I only had a surface-level understanding of the different regime types, barely knew anything about their political economies, and tended to group many of the countries together. When considering everything I have learned, I think one the most important tools for studying authoritarianism and change in this region goes back to one of the first articles we read in this class. Lisa Anderson’s 2006 article, the topic of our first blog post, always comes back to my mind. I think her analysis should be considered by anyone studying political science in MENA. Her idea of a tool for understanding is a mindset shift. According to Anderson, political scientists tend to generalize the region with westernized theories and do not tend to ask the right questions (Anderson 2006). Especially in the United States, political scientists tend to relate everything back to democratization and the American experience, but this is not the case for everywhere else in the world. Anderson uses the metaphor of trying to look for a lost key in the light and not in the shadows, like how the political scientists constantly try and look for glimmers of democracy in the Middle East. This metaphor conveys the tool we need to better understand the region. Instead of looking at why democracy has failed, it is more important to look at why authoritarianism persists. 

It All Goes Back to Political Economies…

In my opinion, the most logical explanation for the persistence of authoritarianism is centered around political economies and resource wealth. While regime types and specific histories can be important factors in some cases, resource endowments make a more compelling argument. I think Michael Ross’ work on oil and democracy makes the best case for this. His arguments about rentierism, the spending effect, and group formation effect convinced me, and I was able to apply it to multiple countries when writing my midterm paper (Ross 2001). 

A Look into Sources

Finally, I learned a lot about the different things one can learn from different kinds of sources. While certainly a tough read at times, Cammett, Diwan, Richards, and Waterbury provided a necessary baseline for everything from the regime types, political economies, history, and status of health and food in the region. I felt I needed to know a lot of this information because most of it was completely new to me. I think this source was more about understanding each country and the important factors for authoritarianism. Wedeen’s book provided a completely different understanding, which I also think was very necessary. Her book on Syria was a much more personal and detailed account. I liked learning about the story of M, getting more information about Syrian family structures and everyday life, and seeing the pictures, jokes, and political cartoons. A source like this is important when inserting humanity into studying authoritarianism and change. While meant to be comical, the political cartoons really emphasize the struggle and repression that Syrians faced. I think detailed books like this should be used in tandem with a more broad book like from  Cammett, Diwan, Richards, and Waterbury. 

Works Cited

Anderson, Lisa. “SEARCHING WHERE the LIGHT SHINES: Studying Democratization in the Middle East.” Annual Review of Political Science, vol. 9, no. 1, June 2006, pp. 189–214, https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.polisci.9.072004.095345.

Cammett, Melani, Ishac Diwan, Alan Richards, and John Waterbury. 2018. A Political Economy of the Middle East. Routledge.

Ross, Michael L. 2001. “Does Oil Hinder Democracy?” World Politics 53 (03): 325–61. https://doi.org/10.1353/wp.2001.0011.

Image Credit: The Economic Times