Suchergebnisse

About two-thirds of the world's Muslims live under governments chosen through competitive elections. The remaining third lives mostly in the Arab world, a region that poses the hardest challenges for democratization. The road ahead is long and arduous, but this will not daunt the Arab and Muslim democrats who are fighting to make democracy a reality in the lands and among the people they love. We may not be as brutal as our autocrats or as numerous as our theocrats, but we are determined to fight the battle for the future, to fight for democracy, and we would welcome help.

Reviews are presented of: 1. The Yacoubian Building, by Alaa Al Aswani, and 2. Friendly Fire, by Alaa Al Aswani.

From Ottoman times in the 1850s until the rise of Nasser and the Free
Officers' regime in the mid-20th century, Egypt and other countries in
the Middle East enjoyed a kind of Liberal Age that saw civil society,
NGOs, and the rule of law advance. Some institutions born during the
Liberal Age endure. In March 2003, one of these, the Egyptian Court
of Cassation, overturned the Hosni Mubarak government's jailing of
Saad Eddin Ibrahim and its June 2000 shutdown of his Cairo-based Ibn
Khaldun Center. Dr. Ibrahim spoke at the NED about his prison sentence,
his winning legal case, and his hopes for a rebirth of Middle Eastern
liberalism.

Civil society in the Arab world has revitalized itself in the last two decades due to internal, regional, and international factors. Internally, new socio-economic formations have been growing steadily, as the autocratic and/or populist regimes have no longer been able to accommodate or completely suppress them. Regionally, protracted armed conflicts have weakened the state, exposed its impotence in managing such conflicts, and drained its resources. Meanwhile, other regional developments have unwittingly empowered new and old constituencies within each Arab state. Internationally, the patron-client relationship between Arab regimes and the two superpowers has either ended or been greatly altered. The global wave of democratization has also had its marked demonstration effect on the expanding Arab middle class. The responses by Arab regimes to their civil societies indicate as many prospects for further democratization as against it. The modernizing monarchies, namely of Jordan and Morocco, have impressively engineered a smooth transition toward more democratic governance. Their example may tilt the balance toward greater democratic prospects in the entire region, prospects that promise to enhance the peaceful settlement of some of the region's protracted conflicts while also growing in strength from such settlements.