Rami G. Khouri: Arab Autocracy
[Rami G. Khouri is editor-at-large of The Daily Star and director of the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs at the American University of Beirut.]
BEIRUT — The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall passed very quietly in the Arab world, because the meaning of the wall’s fall — the transition from total state control to human freedom — also bypassed the Arab world.
Not the Islamic world, or the Middle East, but the Arab world. For many reasons, the Arab world collectively is the sole exception to the global wave of liberalization and democratization that touched every other region of the planet.
It is difficult to predict how and when our region will change, liberalize and democratize. The spark that sets off a chain reaction for freedom could happen in one country, and then spread to others, like the Solidarity movement in Poland.
The instruments of state control vary throughout the Arab world, and the intensity of autocracy also differs by country, but the net result — with very few exceptions — is the same: Most Arabs feel strong and confident about their culture, religion and identity, but powerless and vulnerable as citizens of their state.
The average Arab citizen does not feel that he or she has the opportunity to express himself or herself fully, or is able to influence government policies.
Modern history in other parts of the world indicates that people will accept to live in autocratic political systems if their standard of living continues to improve. After some years, though, they will demand the right to participate in the decisions their government makes.
The Arab world passed through a long period of sustained national development and state-building from the 1930s to the 1980s, when calls for democracy were rare. In the past 20 years, though, economic growth has tended to skew toward benefiting a small minority of wealthy Arabs. Citizens who simultaneously feel economically stressed and politically stunted find themselves transformed from productive assets for national developments to disruptive elements in a sea of discontent...
Read entire article at NYT
BEIRUT — The 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall passed very quietly in the Arab world, because the meaning of the wall’s fall — the transition from total state control to human freedom — also bypassed the Arab world.
Not the Islamic world, or the Middle East, but the Arab world. For many reasons, the Arab world collectively is the sole exception to the global wave of liberalization and democratization that touched every other region of the planet.
It is difficult to predict how and when our region will change, liberalize and democratize. The spark that sets off a chain reaction for freedom could happen in one country, and then spread to others, like the Solidarity movement in Poland.
The instruments of state control vary throughout the Arab world, and the intensity of autocracy also differs by country, but the net result — with very few exceptions — is the same: Most Arabs feel strong and confident about their culture, religion and identity, but powerless and vulnerable as citizens of their state.
The average Arab citizen does not feel that he or she has the opportunity to express himself or herself fully, or is able to influence government policies.
Modern history in other parts of the world indicates that people will accept to live in autocratic political systems if their standard of living continues to improve. After some years, though, they will demand the right to participate in the decisions their government makes.
The Arab world passed through a long period of sustained national development and state-building from the 1930s to the 1980s, when calls for democracy were rare. In the past 20 years, though, economic growth has tended to skew toward benefiting a small minority of wealthy Arabs. Citizens who simultaneously feel economically stressed and politically stunted find themselves transformed from productive assets for national developments to disruptive elements in a sea of discontent...