Democratization and Development: New Political Strategies for the Middle East

Democratization and Development: New Political Strategies for the Middle East, by Dietrich Jung, éd. Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. 208 pages, $69.55, hardcover.

In the lively debate on democratization in the Arab Middle East, orientalists and modernization theorists have heavily relied on "Arab and Muslim exceptionalism" to argue that Islam is inherently incompatible with democracy. It is the controversial nature of this essentialist argument that has gathered together the authors of Democratization and Development: New Political Strategies for the Middle East, to offer an informative, if not convincing, alternative to the scholarly debate. In their critique, they employ the Turkish example to open up a space in which democratic ideologies and institutions may thrive in the wider region. At the center of this ambitious collection of essays written by European political scientists, historians and political economists, there lies not simply a commitment, but the necessity to involve the European Union (EU) in the socioeconomic and political development of the Arab Middle East. The effort simultaneously addresses the importance of and hope for international security.

Democracy and Development consists of two parts, each divided into three chapters. In the first half, the contributors examine the effects of external intervention, the pan-Islamist network and the satellite media on democratization in the Arab world. Their discussion then extends into (modern) transnational and international contexts. The second half of the book draws together another three contributions which analyze the crucial combination of internal and external forces in the cases of democratization in Turkey, pseudo-reforms by authoritarian regimes in Egypt, and the relationship between state and market economies in Syria.

In the introductory chapter, Dietrich Jung clarifies the purposes of the anthology: first, to probe a hypothesis: whether state formation necessarily requires absolute violence in the contemporary globalized world order; and, second, to assess the prospects of democratization and development in the Middle East. He thus begins with Charles Tilly's historical examination of the intimate relationship between war and state-building in modern European history. That correlation, Jung argues, remains missing in the Middle East. There, the postcolonial state-building process has not caused any large-scale war. He explains this non-European phenomenon with the concept of "liberal internationalism": the international community can prevent war during the state-building process through the alliance of states with international and transnational organizations. Within the Middle Eastern context, then, the existing network of political institutions has fostered violent, yet not apocalyptic, means of nation-state building. With this in mind, Jung provides his readers with a nuanced historiography of modernization in the Middle East to criticize two points: that the Arab region is both politically homogeneous and undifferentiated, and that violent European historical experiences can help to assess Middle Eastern state formation. According to him, one way to form peaceful and democratic states is to give a greater role to international communities in Arab politics.

In the second chapter, "Dancing with Wolves: Dilemmas of Democracy Promotion in Authoritarian Contexts," Oliver Schlumberger begins his investigation of Arab democratization by raising an urgent question. Despite Western efforts in democracy promotion (DP), why have the Arab countries not liberalized? He proceeds with a careful explication of three theoretical problems. First of all, the United States, as well as the EU, seems to prefer political or economic benefits to promoting real democracy. The second problem touches upon the structure that Western donors, the democracy promoters, have tried to impose on democracy by applying Western-oriented democratic theory to a region where empirical reality demands reconsideration of any theoretical articulations. Schlumberger argues that singled-out ingredients (democratic elements), however important they may be, are insufficient without a general recipe, what he calls a "law of transition." The last problem concerns agency, that is, an internal political partner who is to be supported. He points to one problematic strategy of democracy developers - supporting civil society, which needs the approval of the authoritarian government to exist and therefore eventually strengthens the regime. Considering the fact that the democratization process has to go through the demise of the authoritarian regime, one can hardly imagine that regimes would be willing to give up their own power. For Schlumberger, the solution would be to have donors prioritize democratic change, to support an adequate internal agency, and to change the mechanism of dialogue with Arab regimes. Additionally, he considers long-term ways to make implanted democracy work - beyond the technical establishment of democratic institutions - by means such as fostering elites.

In the third chapter, "Who's Afraid of Transnationalism? Arabism, Islamism, and the Prospects of Democratization in the Middle East," Thomas Scheffler asks why the hypothesis that homogeneous states are likely to be democratic does not apply to Arab countries. One explanation may lie in the fact that pan-Arab movements have resulted from "monoethnicity," which is not confined to one territorial state and exerts negative influences on democratization.

During the period of decolonization, the pan-Arab movement occurred as an inevitable consequence of the artificial borders that the Western colonizer had previously drawn. This geopolitical past has enabled authoritarian regimes in the region to militarize their nations by using a particular rhetoric in which national security is invoked against external foes, such as the West and Israel, to postpone democratic reform. After the humiliating defeat of the Arab armies, led by the secular Egyptian nationalist Nasser, pan-Arabism has been slowly replaced by pan-Islamism, a society-oriented project from below. It is not opposed to nations per se and seeks practical changes in society. Scheffler acknowledges the correlation between transnationalism and violence as follows: "[Violence has the tendency to generate transnational structures and networks that allow its continuation." At the same time, however, he stresses the role of transnational networking in democratization. He suggests multiple ways to realize democracy by means of transnationalism, such as "White Arabism," which Mallat has used for "claiming Arab unity on the basis of liberalism, democracy and non-violence," the G-8 initiative, and the anti-globalization movement. However, these opportunities are, as the author explains, not without their shortcomings.

The fourth chapter, "Democratization and the New Arab Media," delves into the second part of the anthology. Its author, Jakob Skovgaad-Peterson, analyzes the influence of Arab satellite media on democracy. He introduces its ten-year history, beginning with Al-Jazeera's emergence in 1996, and examines the positive and negative impact that the media have on Arab democracy. SkovgaadPeterson raises the following question: Why have the changes in media not caused significant political change in the Arab world? The author compares two opposing movements, one in Lebanon and one in Egypt in spring 2005. At that time, the Lebanese anti-government and antiSyrian movements took advantage of the media to create a close tie with demonstrators. These movements were possible in the heterogeneous nation, due to the weak government. In the Egyptian case, however, the local media, discouraged by the official Mubarak-government media, failed to play a significant role. Based on this comparison Skovgaad-Peterson concludes that the pan-Arab media have their limits in mobilizing the masses locally. Yet the coalescence of media and politics is crucial for realizing democracy in the region.

In the fifth chapter, "The Political Economy of Islam and Democracy in Turkey," Ziyaij-^iis describes the historical lessons of Turkish democratization through the 1990s and examines the roles of both the Justice and Development party (the AKP) and the EU in Turkish democratization since the Helsinki decision in 1999. He concludes that even the Islamist movement can change its stance to favor integration with the West, as did the AKP's predecessor, the Welfare party. The impediment to liberal democracy is not so much Islam itself as it is the "intersection of a combination of forces both domestic and external" (p. 123). The author refers to democratization in a predominantly Muslim setting against a backdrop of several factors: secularism, representative democracy, the emergence of a middle class and educated professionals, and the role of the EU. Given the political and economic differences, he warns against attempting to transplant the Turkish model to the Arab Middle East, although it may provide some guidance.

In the sixth chapter, "Democratization Reforms as a Means of Stabilizing Authoritarian Rule in Contemporary Egypt," Maye Kassem provides a history of the political system in which the president functions as the central figure. This examination runs fromNasser's military coup in 1952 through the regimes of Sadat and Mubarak. He analyzes a series of political reforms at the turn of the new millennium, most obviously seen in the constitutional amendment, Article 76, in 2005. In contrast to the government's clarification in the media of its intention to advance democratization, Kassem notes that those political changes are merely part of a political rhetoric used by the authoritarian regime to stabilize and consolidate itself.

In the seventh chapter, "State and Market in Syria: The Politics of Economic Liberalization," S'ren Schmidt articulates on a theoretical level the relationship between states and market economies in an attempt to answer this question: what has allowed states "to provide the right institutions for a thriving market economy?" (p. 152). Focusing on the underdevelopment of the modern state-building process in Syria, he offers several strategies.

S'ren attributes Syria's political and economic impasse to the lack of separation between private and public realms and the government's inability to mold a solid reform constituency, as well as major political forces. He depicts Syria as a nation "controlled by a coalition of private rent seekers and predatory rulers, whose short-sighted interests seem to rule out any progress in allowing the state to perform its complementary role in the market economy, that is, to serve as a provider of coordination, institutions, and public goods" (p. 169). In the same vein as LH^is's claim, Schmidt emphasizes a more active political intervention by the EU in the transformation of Syria's political economy.

This interdisciplinary anthology ends with Jung's analysis. He provides an evaluation of the authors' arguments and consolidates his own with the help of their theoretical and empirical contributions. He sheds light on the simplistic, overly optimistic - and possibly dangerous viewpoints of democratic peace theorists, who consider democracy a cure-all for dictatorship, human-rights abuses and terrorism. Jung argues that democratization is a conflict-prone process, as the modem European experience has already demonstrated. In the short term, he writes, this is likely to happen in the contemporary Arab Middle East as well. Nevertheless, that immediate hardship should not distract states from seeking the long-term benefits of democratization, which will also contribute to international security.

Since the great majority of contributors are European, their perspective is Western-centered, and from time to time one finds an undue emphasis on the role of the EU in the democratization and development of the Middle East. Yet this anthology offers a wealth of instructive and thoughtprovoking ideas. In that it is readable as well as insightful, it can be appreciated by laypersons and scholars.

Copyright Middle East Policy Council Summer 2008 | Lami Kirn, graduate student, Center for Middle Eastern Studies, Harvard University