Anti-regime protests continue in the Arab Middle East. But experts say that Arab factionalism and tribalism work against democracy. Which way will prevail?
The Arab Spring has been hailed as a harbinger of a new Middle East—one that is free and democratic, where dictators no longer hold sway and where individual rights are respected. Yet, along with long-suppressed anger now let loose, these Arab protests have revealed an array of opposing interests and parties. Does this factionalism present a real and grave obstacle to democratic reform?
Factionalism and the Arab Spring
Any observer of the “Arab Street” is soon aware of the fact that Middle Eastern politics is a very complicated matter. Different interest groups appear and merge, disappear and re-appear, so that no clear cut pathway to democracy emerges.In contrast to the usual political systems of the West in which a few strong parties vie for power in each state, power structures in Arab and Middle Eastern politics are different. According to Dr. Philip Salzman, anthropologist at McGill University, in Culture and Conflict in the Middle East: “Factionalism is the norm; there is a constant fission into smaller groups in opposition to one another, and fusion into larger groups opposed to one another”—a neat encapsulation of the current situation in the Middle East and North Africa.
Jul 20, 2011
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