In her article, “Standing Where the Light Shines”, Lisa Anderson examines the many things political scientists have gotten wrong in their attempts to study on the lack of democratization in the Middle East and North Africa. Political scientists have continually struggled to explain the this issue, and this lack of understanding often leads to inaccuracies in their reporting.

As the process of modernization got fully underway during the Cold War, it was expected that with the new advances in technology and the construction of more rigid infrastructures and economy building, a process of democratization would follow suit. Their assumptions were based on what had been traditionally seen around the world, that as an economy modernizes, democracy usually came up along with it, but this is a flawed view of history across the world, with many democracies forming this way, but later sliding back into the grasp of authoritarian leaders in the face of poverty, imperialism, and general economic troubles caused by being part of an exploitative globalized economy. As Anderson points out, this becomes even more complicated when discussing the Middle East and North Africa.

A country’s history plays a massive role in how effective a process of democratization would come along with the modernization of an economy, and the history of this region did not enter the thoughts of some researchers, causing a false idea of a perfect process emerging. More over, every nation on Earth has its own unique needs defined by the culture of the people, its history, and geography, which the usual process of democratization is just not cut out for.

By working to understand the histories of the countries that make up the MENA, and by examining the cultures which exists within their borders, we can come to a better understanding of the factors which prevented them from democratizing as they modernized and industrialized. The lack of democracy in the region may be exceptional to some, but with a strong foundational understanding of each nation which has failed to enact these changes, we can better understand why, and more importantly, how recent struggles for democracy such as the Arab Spring have seen little success.