Democratisation in the Middle East - the debate

... the exchange rate has more to do with the trade-weighted relative demand for the currencies than it has with the relative wealth of the countries themselves. ...

The U.S. dollar hit a nine-week low Thursday against the euro, weakened by higher oil prices, a sell-off in Treasury bonds and nervousness over upcoming U.S. trade figures.

Islam And Democracy
The Emerging Consensus

Our purpose in this essay is to examine the relationship between Islam and democracy more closely by focusing our discussion on three pertinent questions: How do Islamists view democracy? What has been their actual conduct in relation to democratic institutions and processes? Finally, under what circumstances would Islamists find democratic political process acceptable, and under what conditions would they deem it uncongenial for their Islamic goals?

http://www.islamonline.net/english/Contemporary/2002/05/Article15.shtml

Understanding Arab Political Reality: One Lens Is Not Enough
We are witnessing unusual scenes in the Middle East. Mass demonstrations in Lebanon, joint protest rallies of Egyptian Islamists and liberals against the Mubarak regime in Egypt, and municipal elections in Saudi Arabia are just as much features of the current situation as are cease-fire declarations by Palestinian resistance movements and multiparty negotiations for forming a coalition government in Iraq.

Amr Hamzawy is a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment, and a noted Egyptian political scientist who previously taught at Cairo University and the Free University of Berlin. His research interests include the changing dynamics of political participation and the prospects of democratic transformation in the Arab world, with special attention both to Egypt and the Gulf countries.

Evaluating Middle East Reform: How Do We Know When It Is Significant?

By Marina S. Ottaway
Summary

This short paper launches the second set of studies in the Carnegie Papers Middle East Series. The first set, now also published as a book under the title Uncharted Journey: Promoting Democracy in the Middle East, examined the most important issues concerning democracy promotion and democratic change in the Middle East.

One of the conclusions that emerged from those studies is that the Middle East still offers a rather discouraging political picture. There are some liberalized autocracies but no democratic countries in the region. The link between economic and political reform remains weak. Democratic reformers have failed to build strong constituencies, and the organizations with strong constituencies are Islamist rather than democratic.

The integration of Islamists in the reform process remains poor. And the United States, now championing democracy in the region, has little credibility in Arab eyes, and still has not consistently integrated democracy promotion in its policy toward the area. Yet, despite all these problems, it is becoming increasingly clear that there is a ferment of reform in the Middle East. But how signficant is it? The second set of papers will try to answer that question through case studies of individual countries.

About the Author

Marina Ottaway is senior associate in the Democracy and Rule of Law Project at the Carnegie Endowment. She is the coeditor of Uncharted Journey: Promoting Democracy in the Middle East, and author of nine books, including Democracy Challenged: The Rise of Semi-Authoritarianism.

Reform in Europe was driven by a rising Middle Class, among other things.

Walter, I'm sure you know. You do purport yourself to be fabulously educated.

C'Mon. Dazzle us with the significance of the new Middle Class in any ole revolution in Europe.