{"id":26,"date":"2020-04-30T17:11:04","date_gmt":"2020-04-30T17:11:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sternd\/?p=26"},"modified":"2020-04-30T17:11:04","modified_gmt":"2020-04-30T17:11:04","slug":"prospects-of-democratization-in-mena","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sternd\/2020\/04\/30\/prospects-of-democratization-in-mena\/","title":{"rendered":"Prospects of Democratization in MENA"},"content":{"rendered":"

An\u00a0<\/span>Islamic Democracy<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Political scientists describe the 21<\/span>st<\/span>\u00a0century ideological shift of the Middle East and Northern Africa region (MENA) as a \u201crelative change towards democracy.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>This can be attributed to a few things. First, western (American) influence in MENA has largely been resisted by indigenous Arab\u2019s due to western <\/span>discontent towards the region. Second, the cultural influence of Islam is not agreed upon by contemporary scholars, as <\/span>MENA countries do not have solely Muslim populations. The effect that the Islamic religion has on the emergence<\/span> of democracy is skeptical at best.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When examined, the region\u2019s newly formed democracies are fraught with issues<\/span>. <\/span>Lebanon\u2019s mass protests and governmental negotiations, Tunisia\u2019s free and fair elections, and Iraq\u2019s (outside) controlled elections.<\/span>\u00a0This is where the problem lies. There is no correlation between Islam and democracy. Countries<\/span>\u00a0particularly in this region<\/span>\u00a0oft<\/span>en exhibit <\/span>unexpected combinations of some form of democracy and authoritarianism. <\/span>Democratization<\/span> is a process that stalls and starts.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Outside sources are the only examples of real<\/span>–<\/span>world democracies individuals in the MENA region <\/span>have to<\/span> emulate. The existing democracies such as the U.S., the U.K, Germany, <\/span>etc<\/span> \u2013 are all existing democracies th<\/span>at MENA can use as a reference for their own regimes. <\/span>Information <\/span>about<\/span> the Arab world from the\u00a0<\/span>World Values survey<\/span> indicates that although MENA <\/span>states may be hesitant to embrace westernization, they value democracy much more than citizens of actual democracies do.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/span><\/p>\n

The <\/span>c<\/span>hart here illustrates <\/span>the inc<\/span>reased favor democracy has with MENA states since the Arab Springs<\/span> https:\/\/www.atlanticcouncil.org\/blogs\/menasource\/do-arabs-want-democracy\/<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>In order for<\/span> democratization<\/span> to be <\/span>successful<\/span>, it must occur <\/span>intrinsically<\/span> within society. <\/span>This is why<\/span> Iraq\u2019s American-funded reconstruction has largely been a disaster<\/span>. The defining characteristic of democracy in the Islamic World is that it will look drastically different from western democracy. <\/span>Therefore<\/span>, as Lisa Anderson <\/span>asserts, concepts of political science do not always apply universally. <\/span>Democratic regimes in MENA must emerge based upon the exceptionality of each individual state\u2019s needs, resources, and social values.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Drew Stern<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An\u00a0Islamic Democracy\u00a0 Political scientists describe the 21st\u00a0century ideological shift of the Middle East and Northern Africa region (MENA) as a \u201crelative change towards democracy.\u201d\u00a0This can be attributed to a few things. First, western (American) influence in MENA has largely been resisted by indigenous Arab\u2019s due to western discontent towards the region. Second, the cultural influence […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4041,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sternd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sternd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sternd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sternd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4041"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sternd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sternd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sternd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sternd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/sternd\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}