Beyond Democratization: Political Change in the Arab World

Abstract

Over the past decade the paradigm of “democratization” has dominated analysis of political change, reflecting the dramatic transitions from authoritarian rule in Southern and Eastern Europe, Latin America, and East Asia. While the new literature on democratization has pointedly excluded the Arab world, a growing number of area specialists have sought to identify local developments that signal the early phases of, or at least potential for, a democratic transformation of state and society in the Middle East (Hudson 1991; Ibrahim 1993; Al-Sayyid Marsot 1990; Norton 1994). It is difficult to generalize about political change in the Arab world, as several distinct patterns have emerged, reflecting differences in institutional settings as well as in the strategies of regime and opposition elites.