Please discuss the question using the countries Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria and Yemen mostly. use the books i have referenced below, you will find a lot of information in the readings and the two websites i have provided. Word count 1350 – 1650 words.
Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with a focus on the “Arab Spring”
Lectures
• Background to the “Arab Spring”
• Processes of the “Arab Spring”
“The so-called ‘Arab Spring’ shows that the main constraint on the spread of democracy is power, not culture.” Discuss.
Introductory Readings
• Diamond, Larry, “Why Are there No Arab Democracies?”, Journal of Democracy vol. 21, no. 1 (January 2010), pp. 93–104.
Further Readings on Conditions for Democracy in the Middle East
• Bellin, Eva (2004). “The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective.” Comparative Politics vol. 36, no. 2 (January), pp. 139–57.
• Huntington, Samuel P. (1993). “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs vol. 72, no. 2 (summer), 22–49.
• Inglehart, Ronald, and Pippa Norris (2003). “The True Clash of Civilizations”. Foreign Policy, no. 135 (March–April), pp. 62–70.
• Tessler, Mark, Amaney Jamal, and Michael Robbins (2012). “New Findings on Arabs and Democracy”. Journal of Democracy vol. 23, no. 4 (October), pp. 89–103.
• Voll, John O., and John L. Esposito (1994). “Islam’s Democratic Essence”. Middle East Quarterly vol. 1, no. 3 (September).
Further Readings on the “Arab Spring” and Its Aftermath
• Berman, Sheri (2013). “The Promise of the Arab Spring: In Political Development, No Gain without Pain”, Foreign Affairs vol. 92, no. 1 (January/February), pp. 64–74.
• Puddington, Arch (2013). “Breakthroughs in the Balance”. Journal of Democracy vol. 24, no. 2 (April), pp. 46–61.
• Roy, Olivier (2012). “The Transformation of the Arab World”, Journal of Democracy vol. 23, no. 3 (July), pp. 5–18.
o See also the response to this article by Hillel Fradkin and Olivier Roy’s reply, both in Journal of Democracy 24, no. 1 (January 2013), pp. 5–13 and 14–19.
• Stepan, Alfred, and Juan J. Linz (2013). “Democratization Theory and the ‘Arab Spring’”, Journal of Democracy 24, no. 2 (April), 15–30.
• For up-to-date and intelligent comment on political developments, see the website of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/.
• For up-to-date reports on electoral processes and post-election developments, particularly in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, see the Election Reports section of the website of the Carter Center:
