{"id":98,"date":"2023-09-21T12:51:25","date_gmt":"2023-09-21T12:51:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/yandowhm\/?p=98"},"modified":"2023-09-21T17:43:05","modified_gmt":"2023-09-21T17:43:05","slug":"andersons-searching-where-the-light-shines-studying-democratization-in-the-middle-east","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/yandowhm\/2023\/09\/21\/andersons-searching-where-the-light-shines-studying-democratization-in-the-middle-east\/","title":{"rendered":"Anderson’s “Searching Where the Light Shines: Studying Democratization in the Middle East”"},"content":{"rendered":"

For decades, political scientists studying the Middle East have tried to solve the region\u2019s unique resistance to democracy or rather, the persistence of authoritarianism. In her 2006 article \u201cSearching Where the Light Shines: Studying Democratization in the Middle East,\u201d Anderson argues that one of the main reasons why political scientists have failed to understand the political forces at work in the Middle East is due to the West, in particular the United States, projecting democracy as the measure of politics onto the rest of the world based on their institutions, values, and ideals (Anderson 191). Especially after events such as Secretary Albright’s speech in 2001 and 9\/11, political scientists have become preoccupied with democracy and American foreign policy\u2019s emphasis of democratization; two unnatural and ambiguous notions to both Arab leaders and people. By trying to fit the region into the western boundaries of political science, an awkward and ill-fitting framework for understanding dynamics in the Middle East,\u201d political scientists have become unable to study of Middle Eastern politics and the region\u2019s contribution to comparative politics (Anderson 205).<\/p>\n

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Freedom House Map depicting the numerous MENA countries who are ranked as “not free.”<\/p><\/div>\n

Anderson refers to the metaphor of finding a key on a street to illustrate her argument. Instead of searching for the key only in the light meaning fixating on the Western idea of \u201cdemocratization,\u201d political scientists should search more in the shadows, \u201cin the arenas of political life less well illuminated by conventional political science\u201d (Anderson 210).<\/p>\n

Anderson highlights the many faults in the universal democracy bandwagon enforced by the West. First, American political science is ahistorical where political scientists only recognized Middle Eastern societies after their independence, ignoring their rich regional histories. Many of the political scientists, also focused on the role religion in sustaining democracy; while most political scientists agreed that Islamist politics often coincided with the emergence of democracy, others found it difficult to differentiate the Muslim world from the Arab Middle East.<\/p>\n

As a class, we can avoid or compensate for these potential problems by recognizing that democracy is not the only aspect of political science we should be looking at when trying to understand a country’s political dynamics. We can also work to avoid any biases, especially from a Western perspective, and instead, analyzing the region by equally taking into account its’ rich history, culture, religions, and uniquity.<\/p>\n

Anderson\u2019s article also discusses how Arab people may not actually want or care about democracy due to the lack of “organized popular enthusiasm for democratic reform,” potential of people in the region not understanding the concept of democracy, and the term being used by insincere leaders to promote their interests and reputation (Anderson 204).\u00a0 However, the Arab uprisings of 2010-2011 would have proven that indeed, Arab people did want democracy. Perhaps they didn\u2019t specifically use the words \u201cdemocracy\u201d or \u201cdemocratization,\u201d but they demanded basic human rights, dignity, and freedom. This social movement would have demonstrated to the political science community that many countries are filled with people willing to sacrifice for the democratic ideals of rights, dignity, and freedom.<\/p>\n

References:<\/strong>\u00a0Anderson, Lisa. \u201cSearching where the light shines: Studying democratization in the Middle East.\u201d\u00a0Annual Review of Political Science<\/i>, vol. 9, no. 1, 2006, pp. 189\u2013214, https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1146\/annurev.polisci.9.072004.095345.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For decades, political scientists studying the Middle East have tried to solve the region\u2019s unique resistance to democracy or rather, the persistence of authoritarianism. In her 2006 article \u201cSearching Where the Light Shines: Studying Democratization in the Middle East,\u201d Anderson argues that one of the main reasons why political scientists have failed to understand the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4969,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-98","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/yandowhm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/yandowhm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/yandowhm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/yandowhm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4969"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/yandowhm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=98"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/yandowhm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/98\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/yandowhm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=98"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/yandowhm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=98"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/yandowhm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=98"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}