The Globalization of Democracy and the Location of the Middle East in the Contemporary Global Order (original) (raw)
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Globalisation and the challenge of democracy in Arab North Africa
Africa Development, 2006
Democratization processes have emerged recently as an essential component of globalization and thus, have been paramount in its discourse, and as a political prerequisite for integrating developing countries in the global market. The emphasis, however, has been on liberal democracy. The paper argues that the very process of globalization based on unequal global power relations and the externally formulated policies imposed on developing countries of the south are neither democratic nor an expression of their authentic needs and interests. In this respect globalization represents a denial of democracy on the global level. Meanwhile, the early and involuntary adoption of structural adjustment programmes by globalized countries of the south, with their socially polarizing impact, have enhanced the exclusion of greater numbers of the people from economic, social, and political processes and led the already undemocratic governments to adopt a more authoritarian praxis to enforce unfriendly globalization policies. A nominal liberal democracy was adopted only to bring the globalized economic elite to power to the further exclusion and marginalization of the majority of the population. The paper then discusses the debate by African and Arab intellectuals on the different types of democracy and their relevance to Arab North African societies.
A rough journey: Nascent democratization in the Middle East
The tumultuous and frustrating escalation of violence between Israelis and Palestinians, particularly since 2000, the continuation of international sanctions against Iraq and its suffering population, the continuing vio- lence in Algeria, and high levels of structural violence committed by au- thoritarian governments in virtually all states of the region - all these are constant reminders that the societies in the Middle East are still far re- moved from a condition of stable peace. Conflict, violence, and repres- sion, particularly in this era of globalization, produce economic and social stagnation that will marginalize these countries, and the region overall, even further in an environment in which peace and political stability are the basic foundations for economic competitiveness in the global econ- omy. This is not to speak of the immense human suffering produced by internally and externally initiated, supported, and manipulated violence and instability.1 There are many reason...
Globalization and the Challenge for Democracy in Arab North Africa
Africa Development, Vol. XXX, No. 4, 2005, pp. 1–33
Abstract Democratization processes have emerged recently as an essential component of globalization and thus, have been paramount in its discourse, and as a political prerequisite for integrating developing countries in the global market. The emphasis, however, has been on liberal democracy. The paper argues that the very process of globalization based on unequal global power relations and the externally formulated policies imposed on developing countries of the south are neither democratic nor an expression of their authentic needs and interests. In this respect globalization represents a denial of democracy on the global level. Meanwhile, the early and involuntary adoption of structural adjustment programmes by globalized countries of the south, with their socially polarizing impact, have enhanced the exclusion of greater numbers of the people from economic, social, and political processes and led the already undemocratic governments to adopt a more authoritarian praxis to enforce unfriendly globalization policies. A nominal liberal democracy was adopted only to bring the globalized economic elite to power to the further exclusion and marginalization of the majority of the population. The paper then discusses the debate by African and Arab intellectuals on the different types of democracy and their relevance to Arab North African societies.
Ahmad, Irfan. 2012. “How the West De-democratised the Middle East”. Al-Jazeera (English). 30 March.
Rather than promote democracy in the Middle East, the West has a long history of doing the exact opposite. Against the dominant doxa, I make three arguments. FIRST, the position that Islam is incompatible with democracy was false from the beginning, because it served imperial ambitions of the West and violated Muslims' self-perception that, not only is Islam compatible with democracy, it was one of the engines of democratic empowerment. SECOND, I argue that the West's discourse of democratisation of the Middle East is dubious because it hides how the West actually de-democratised the Middle East. My contention is that, from the 1940s onwards, democratic experiments were well in place and the West subverted them to advance its own interests. I offer three examples of de-democratisation: The reportedly CIA-engineered coup against the elected government of Syria in 1949, the coup orchestrated by the US and UK against the democratic Iran in 1953 and subversion of Bahrain's democracy in the 1970s. I also touch on the West's recent de-democratisation in Iraq and Afghanistan. THIRD, I explain that the Middle East was de-democratised because the West rarely saw it as a people with dynamic, rich social-cultural textures. The Western power elites viewed the Middle East as no more than a region of multiple resources and strategic interests; hence their aim was to keep it "stable" and "manageable".To Ernest Bevin, foreign secretary (1945-51) of imperial Britain, without "its oil and other potential resources" there was "no hope of our being able to achieve the standard of life at which we [are] aiming in Great Britain"
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This collection of essays by leading academics offers an alternative approach to the study of today’s Arab states by focusing on their participation in neo-liberal globalization rather than on authoritarianism or Islam. The effects of the restructuring of traditional state power engendered by globalization are analyzed separately, through updated empirical research in the political, economic and security processes of each country considered. Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco and Saudi Arabia are the case studies selected to represent different paths towards a shared model of “new” Arab state which, far from representing an exceptional case of resilience against global trends, may be seen in many instances as typifying their effects. This book thus offers both an overall conceptualization of change affecting the Arab states, domestically and in their relations with the international system, and a series of in-depth case studies by country and functional areas. About the contributors Laura Guazzone is Professor of the Contemporary History of the Arab Countries at ‘La Sapienza’ University of Rome. Daniela Pioppi is Senior Research Fellow at the Italian Institute of International Affairs. Other contributors include Paul Aarts and Joris van Duijne, Joel Beinin, Myriam Catusse, Philippe Droz-Vincent, Issandr El Amrani, Steffen Hertog, Karam Karam, Charbel Nahas, Elizabeth Picard, Tim Niblock, Maria Cristina Paciello, Karen Aggestam, Helena Lindholm Schulz and Ulrich Wurzel.
Democratization, 2015
What explains the almost negative impact of international factors on post-Uprising democratization prospects? This article compares the utility of rival "diffusionist" and neo-Gramscian political economy frames to explain this. Three international factors deter democratization. The failure of Western democracy promotion is rooted in the contradiction between the dominance of global finance capital and the norm of democratic equality; in the periphery, neo-liberalism is most compatible with hybrid regimes and, at best, "low intensity democracy." In MENA, neo-liberalism generated a crony capitalism incompatible with democratization; while this also sparked the uprisings, these have failed to address class inequalities. Moreover at the normative level, MENA hosts the most credible counter-hegemonic ideologies; the brief peaking of democratic ideology in the region during the early uprisings soon declined amidst regional discourse wars. Non-democrats-coercive regime remnants and radical charismatic movements-were empowered by the competitive interference of rival powers in Uprising states. The collapse of many Uprising states amidst a struggle for power over the region left an environment uncongenial to democratization.
The Eagle Feather, 2011
is a recent magna cum laude graduate from the College of Arts and Sciences and the Honors College at the University of North Texas with a Bachelors of Arts in International Studies and a minor in Arabic. Krysten aspires to attend graduate school in international studies. She is currently working in North Dallas while continuing her personal studies of the increasingly globalized world at large and of the Middle Eastern region in particular. Eventually Krysten hopes to work as an intelligence analyst for the United States government to better inform and coordinate our activities abroad while minimizing local cultural and civilian disruption.
Democracy in the Middle East: Towards a More Peculiar Framework of Analysis
2014
For several decades, an already classical controversy has been developed, regarding the compatibility between democracy, in its forms developed by Western political culture (real partitioning of power within the state and independence of institutions, constitutionalism, respect of human rights and liberties, liberty of expression, existence of an active civil society, normal relations between state and society etc.) and capacity of the state and society from the Arab-Muslim World to functionally assume such a model. In the case of latter, a series of characteristics is linked to authoritarian and patriarchal political transitions, to persistence of an economic, political and religious violence which affects the internal stability of society, the important role of army which interferes or even dominates the civilian political environment, fluidity of the national realities and attachments which are challenged by the persistence of certain ethnic, sectarian or regional solidarities, raising issues on the legitimacy of nation-states, projects of Islamist movements that promote their own models of state and society, constructed from a reinterpretation of Islamic tradition, etc. Based on these assumptions, in this paper I intend to review several specific elements that contribute to the regional conditioning of democratization processes, especially in the context of new political and security dynamics, after the Arab Spring, the possibilities of democratization in the Middle East and North Africa, which have experienced tendencies of authoritarianism and especially an ascending fragmentation of the state order and stability, that has emerged as one of the recurrent analysis themes for specialists and decision makers.