Download or read book The Middle East and Problems of Democracy written by Heather Deegan and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the post-Cold War, post-Gulf War political environment of the Middle East, a debate about democracy and pluralism has begun. In this work, Heather Deegan challenges the view that political reform is unsustainable in the region, and examines the moves towards democratization which have recently taken place. She discusses individual countries on the basis of their political structures: monarchical, authoritarian, theocratic, confessional and multiparty. She considers factors in the democratizing process such as the institution of political parties, the re-introduction of elections, citizenship with associated rights and responsibilities and the role of Islam. Democracy is not confined solely to a liberal democratic model although political change and greater levels of participation may be viewed as steps paving the way for a fuller democratization in a liberal democratic sense. The author identifies certain constraints which tended to undermine political advances in the past: population mobility, communal division and the impact of the Cold War. She places the possibilities for political reform in the wider context of the Third World in order to assess the degree to which prospects for democracy in the Middle East correspond with general conclusions about democratization in the developing world.

Download or read book Challenges to Democracy in the Middle East written by William Harris and published by . This book was released on 1997 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides in five essays background information on some of the most current problems affecting the modern Middle East.

Download or read book Islam and Democracy in the Middle East written by Larry Diamond and published by . This book was released on 2003-08-07 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A comprehensive assessment of the origins and staying power of Middle East autocracies, as well as a sober account of the struggles of state reformers and opposition forces to promote civil liberties, competitive elections and a pluralistic vision of Islam. Drawing on the insights of some 25 leading Western and Middle Eastern scholars, the book highlights the dualistic and often contradictory nature of political liberalization. Yemen suggest, political liberalization - as managed by the state - not only opens new spaces for debate and criticism, but is also used as a deliberate tactic to avoid genuine democratization. In several chapters on Iran, the authors analyze the benefits and costs of limited reform. There, the electoral successes of President Mohammad Khatami and his reformist allies inspired a new generation but have not as yet undermined the clerical establishment's power. By contrast, in Turkey a party with Islamist roots is moving a discredited system beyond decades of conflict and paralysis, following a stunning election victory in 2002. force for change. While acknowledging the enduring attraction of radical Islam throughout the Arab world, the concluding chapters carefully assess the recent efforts of Muslim civil society activists and intellectuals to promote a liberal Islamic alternative. Their struggles to affirm the compatibility of Islam and pluralistic democracy face daunting challenges, not least of which is the persistent efforts of many Arab rulers to limit the influence of all advocates of democracy, secular or religious.

Download or read book Democratisation in the Middle East written by Birgitte Rahbaek and published by Aarhus Universitetsforlag. This book was released on 2005-12-01 with total page 180 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The main aim of the book is to provide a forum for opinions held by Arabs who are neither Western puppets nor fanatical nationalists or Islamists, but rather academics with a vast knowledge of the Middle East as well as of the West. The authors all support the building of a democratic secular Middle East, but their writings also show that although there is no easy way to achieve this goal, neither is there any excuse for not making the attempt. Contributors: Nader Fergany author of the Arab Human Development Reports; Raymond Hinnebusch professor of International Relations and Middle East Politics, University of St. Andrews; Yezid Sayigh consultant to the international donor community in Palestine; Samir Aita Syrian scholar and dissident; Graham Usher British journalist; Hanan Rabbani Palestinian consultant for Amnesty International; Mai Yamani (Saudi Arabia) research fellow with the Middle East Programme at the Royal Institute of International Affairs, Chatham House; Fowziyah Abu-Khalid Saudi sociologist; Amal Shlash Iraq; Huda Al-Nu'aimi Iraq; Jgen S. Nielsen Professor, director of the Danish Institute in Damascus.

Download or read book Rules and Rights in the Middle East written by Ellis Goldberg and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 1993 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "As a whole, the book demonstrates that neither the region's overgrown state structures nor the corresponding weakness of autonomous societal organizations can be explained by referring to cultural characteristics of the people in the Middle East or to the precepts of their religions. True explanations, the authors argue, should be framed historically. They pay special attention to the relations among the various groups and regions of the Middle East and to those between the Middle East and western Europe. The authors emphasize the important role played by economic issues and constraints in broadening or narrowing the scope of democracy at various points in time; and finally, they are in agreement in seeing religion and culture of the Middle East not in static and essentialist terms but as dynamic phenomena that grow independently and even in opposition to existing political authorities."--BOOK JACKET.

Download or read book Democracy War and Peace in the Middle East written by David Garnham and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "... this volume is a highly valuable contribution to our understanding of the relation between democracy and peace in the Middle East, as well as in international politics in general.... this book will continue to be of value and interest for some time to come." --The Historian "This book is a useful collection of essays on Middle East politics and international relations presented in a reader-friendly interdisciplinary fashion." --Israel Studies Bulletin "... this is an important collection of challenging papers." --Studies in Contemporary Jewry "... one of the first books that specifically focuses on the possible links between democracy and peace in the region. It is entertaining and highly useful." --MESA Bulletin What are the prospects for continued movement toward democracy in the Arab world, and what form is democracy likely to take? What impact will democratization have on war and peace in the Middle East? Scholars explore these issues in this timely book.

Download or read book Uncharted Journey written by Thomas Carothers and published by Carnegie Endowment. This book was released on 2010-03 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The United States faces no greater challenge today than successfully fulfilling its new ambition of helping bring about a democratic transformation of the Middle East. Uncharted Journey contributes a wealth of concise, illuminating insights on this subject, drawing on the contributors' deep knowledge of Arab politics and their substantial experience with democracy-building in other parts of the world. The essays in part one vividly dissect the state of Arab politics today, including an up-to-date examination of the political shock wave in the region produced by the invasion of Iraq. Part two and three set out a provocative exploration of the possible elements of a democracy promotion strategy for the region. The contributors identify potential false steps as well as a productive way forward, avoiding the twin shoals of either reflexive pessimism in the face of the daunting obstacles to Arab democratization or an unrealistic optimism that fails to take into account the region's political complexities. Contributors include Eva Bellin (Hunter College), Daniel Brumberg (Carnegie Endowment), Thomas Carothers (Carnegie Endowment), Michele Dunne (Georgetown University), Graham Fuller, Amy Hawthorne (Carnegie Endowment), Marina Ottaway (Carnegie Endowment), and Richard Youngs (Foreign Policy Centre).

Download or read book Pacted Democracy in the Middle East written by Hicham Alaoui and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-05-17 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book provides a new theory for how democracy can materialize in the Middle East, and the broader Muslim world. It shows that one pathway to democratization lays not in resolving important, but often irreconcilable, debates about the role of religion in politics. Rather, it requires that Islamists and their secular opponents focus on the concerns of pragmatic survival—that is, compromise through pacting, rather than battling through difficult philosophical issues about faith. This is the only book-length treatment of this topic, and one that aims to redefine the boundaries of an urgent problem that continues to haunt struggles for democracy in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

Download or read book Media and Democracy in the Middle East written by Nael Jebril and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2023-09-20 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This edited volume examines the current challenges to media freedom and democratisation in the Middle East. The book revisits the relationship between media consumption and activism in the region, providing thorough analyses on the appropriation of social media for political engagement. Since the outburst and spread of what was known as the ‘Arab Uprisings’ in 2010, the political and media landscapes in the Middle East region have dramatically changed. The initial hope for democratic change and governance quality improvements has faded, as several regimes in the Middle East have strengthened their repressive tactics toward voices deemed critical of governments’ practices, including journalists, bloggers, and activists. The crumbling Arab media scene has also reached an abysmal low, with little to no independence, and public perception of basic freedoms in the region has significantly dropped, as has trust in media and government institutions. This book examines current challenges to media freedom, political participation, and democratisation in the region while reassessing the dynamic relationship between media use and political engagement, amidst a complex political environment accompanied by a rapidly changing digital media landscape. This book’s relevance will appeal to varied audiences, such as scholars and students of journalism, communication, political science, and Middle Eastern studies. It will also prove to be an invaluable resource for organisations dedicated to the research of political communication, media freedom, and use patterns of nontraditional, or new, media.

Download or read book Democratization in the Middle East written by Amin Saikal and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Part I. Democratic peace, conflict prevention, and the United Nations. Part II. Secularization and democracy. Part III. National and regional experiences.

Download or read book The Struggle over Democracy in the Middle East written by Nathan J. Brown and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2013-07-03 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many residents of the Middle East - and more recently, Western powers - have placed great hope in democratization in the region. Yet authoritarianism remains the norm and movement towards democracy is both slow and uneven. The Struggle over Democracy in the Middle East examines democracy and democratization in the light of regional realities rather than the wishful thinking of outsiders. Specialists from the region analyze democratic prospects in the region, while accomplished scholars from the United States and the United Kingdom analyze Western policy, providing a wide-ranging survey of the efforts of individual countries and the effect of external influences. Addressing themes including sectarianism, culture, religion, security and the promotion of democracy, the book examines the experiences of activists, political parties, religious groups and governments and highlights the difficulties involved in bringing democracy to the Middle East. Providing a multifaceted approach to the issue of democratization, this book will be a valuable reference for courses on Middle Eastern politics, political science and democracy.

Download or read book The Problem of Democracy written by Shadi Hamid and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2022-09-23 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shadi Hamid reimagines the ongoing debate on democracy's merits and proposes an ambitious agenda for reviving the lost art of democracy promotion in the world's most undemocratic regions. What happens when democracy produces bad outcomes? Is democracy good because of its outcomes or despite them? This democratic dilemma is one of the most persistent, vexing problems for America abroad, particularly in the Middle East--we want democracy in theory but not necessarily in practice. When Islamist parties rise to power through free elections, the United States has too often been ambivalent or opposed, preferring instead pliable dictators. With this legacy of democratic disrespect in mind, and drawing on new interviews with top American officials, Shadi Hamid explores universal questions of morality, power, and hypocrisy. Why has the United States failed so completely to live up to its own stated ideals in the Arab world? And is it possible for it to change? In The Problem of Democracy, Hamid offers an ambitious reimagining of this ongoing debate and argues for democratic minimalism as a path to resolving democratic dilemmas in the Middle East and beyond. In the seemingly eternal tension between democracy and liberalism, recognized by the ancient Greeks and the American founders alike, it may be time to prioritize one over the other, rather than acting as if the two are intertwined when increasingly they are not. At the end of the Cold War, the democratic idea was victorious, so much so that it took on more meaning than it could bear. Democracy became a means to other ends, whether it was liberalism, economic development, or cultural progress. What if, instead, democracy was reconceptualized as its own end? What if the people are right even when they're wrong? The problem of democracy is no longer just a Middle Eastern problem. The polarizing effects of identity, culture, and religion are now haunting the world's oldest democracies. At home, a growing number of Americans are realizing that respecting election results when the other side wins is easier said than done. To look then at the democratic dilemma abroad is to consider a deeper set of questions around why we believe democracy is good as well as whether we think it is good for other nations and cultures.

Download or read book Promoting Pluralism and Democracy in the Middle East written by United States. Congress. House. Committee on Foreign Affairs. Subcommittee on Europe and the Middle East and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 84 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Liberation Technology written by Larry Diamond and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2012-07-30 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Liberation Technology brings together cutting-edge scholarship from scholars and practitioners at the forefront of this burgeoning field of study. An introductory section defines the debate with a foundational piece on liberation technology and is then followed by essays discussing the popular dichotomy of liberation'' versus "control" with regard to the Internet and the sociopolitical dimensions of such controls. Additional chapters delve into the cases of individual countries: China, Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia.

Download or read book Contested Sovereignties written by Elisabeth Özdalga and published by I. B. Tauris. This book was released on 2010-06-15 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The relationship between constitutional arrangements and democratic developments has long been a topic of debate among political scientists and jurists. This new book explores these questions with special reference to the Middle East, where political instability and problems related to the consolidation of nation states are particularly acute. Taking the political crisis over the presidential election in Turkey in 2007 as its starting point, the book provides in depth analysis of how these events illustrated the ways in which the constitution and its supporting institutions could be mobilized for narrow and highly controversial political purposes. Questions of state sovereignty are then explored in the cases of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine and Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco, contrasting them with European examples such as Sweden's constitutional arrangement in relation to its monarchy, and the European Union's current constitutional transformation. This is an important book for students and scholars interested in contemporary and historical perspectives on issues of nation building, state sovereignty and democracy in Europe and the Middle East.

Download or read book Promoting Middle East Democracy II written by Mona Yacoubian and published by . This book was released on 2005 with total page 16 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Democratization and Development written by D. Jung and published by Springer. This book was released on 2006-08-05 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the political economy of development and democracy in the Middle East, this book provides new insight into the effects of external initiatives for the support of good governance in Arab states, the impact of transnational Islamist networks on democratization in the Middle East, and the role of new satellite broadcasting in the Arab world.