Free Republic

Quantifying Arab Democracy Democracy in the Middle East Debates over democracy continue to occupy not only U.S. and European policymakers but Arabs as well. Arguments rage about the merits of top-down versus bottom-up democratization. In coffeehouses and in taxis, Arabs discuss the issue. Can democracy take root in Arab countries? How can democracy's supporters move democratization forward? Is civil society a precursor for democracy, or can civil society thrive only once democracy is achieved? How do each country's internal and external dynamics affect the process? In order to gauge progress, it is necessary to measure democracy. Comparisons of such measurements...

Women voted in Kuwait for the first time yesterday as the conservative emirate became the last Gulf state to allow universal suffrage. Kuwaiti voters appeared to embrace the milestone in Middle East democracy as turnout figures surged to over 80 per cent. Womeny voted in separate stations across the conservative state as Islamists had demanded. Campaigners handed out roses to voters or water bottles with candidates' photos printed on them and volunteers offered voters rides to polling stations in golf carts. "I don't know how to describe my feelings, I am so happy, it's a beautiful day as women practice...

Women vote and run in Kuwaiti poll for first timeThu Jun 29, 2006 4:16 AM ET By Haitham Haddadin and Yara BayoumyKUWAIT (Reuters) - Kuwaitis voted for a new parliament on Thursday with women running and casting ballots for the first time in a national poll in the Gulf Arab state."I don't know how to describe my feelings, I am so happy, it's a beautiful day as women practice their right," female candidate Hind al-Shaikh said. "I hope a woman makes it."Parliament passed a law in May 2005 giving women the right to vote and stand as candidates in elections...

KUWAITIS go to the polls next week to elect a new National Assembly, which will in turn approve a new prime minister and Cabinet. The Kuwaitis will be making history for a number of reasons. This is the first election in which women are allowed to vote. And - much to the chagrin of Islamists, who insist that women are unfit to play any role in politics - a number of women are standing, often on platforms of radial social and economic reforms. With a native population of 1 million, Kuwait is one of the smallest states in the Arab...

February 6, 2006 Grit Your Teeth, Embrace Arab Democracy Four reasons why there is no going back Michael Young Almost as soon as Hamas had won a majority in Palestinian legislative elections last week, politicians and publicists began spinning the results to buttress their agendas on Middle Eastern democracy. Not surprisingly, the arguments tended to gravitate toward absolutes, though much about regional democratization forestalls this. What works in one society may be a calamity in another; what an election victory shows about a group's popularity may have nothing to do with that group's criminal behavior. Democracy will continue to...

The Bush administration's push for quick democracy in the Middle East has an increasingly clear implication: if Islamist organizations such as Hamas are to be likely electoral winners, Western powers should stop classifying them as terrorists and instead come to terms with them. Will our speeding to save the Arab world from itself wind up with us paying a terrible toll? This conclusion follows from such efforts as those led by Alastair Crooke and his Conflicts Forum; the European Union's exploration of opening a dialogue with the Islamists; and an astonishing statement in which the White House spokesman referred to...

The Islamic Paradox: Shiite Clerics, Sunni Fundamentalists, and the Coming of Arab Democracy Q: Do you really think the Middle East can become democratic? A: Definitely. When you look at the Arabic press since President Bush declared his intention to end the appeal of bin Ladenism through the democratic transformation of the Middle East, it is striking to see how the discussion of democracy now dominates. This doesn’t mean that democracy is going to arrive overnight—far from it. It certainly doesn’t mean that there are millions of would-be liberal democrats out there in the sands waiting to take power. But...

A new UN report, written by Arab scholars, notes "the acute deficit of freedom and good governance" in the Arab world. But, as one author says, "The Arabs, according to international surveys, have the greatest thirst for freedom and are the most appreciative of democracy out of all people of the world."

AT THE CLOSE of the recent G-8 summit in Sea Island, Georgia, sighs of relief could be heard in palaces across the Middle East where unelected leaders wield near-absolute power. The summit had been expected to produce a clarion call for reform in the only part of the world still largely unaffected by changes that have reshaped global politics since the end of the Cold War. Instead, it settled for a string of bland admonitions.Anxious to avoid fresh charges of unilateralism, and responding to demands from French president Jacques Chirac and German chancellor Gerhard Schröder, President Bush toned down his...

The scandal won't determine the fate of democracy in the Middle East.ACCORDING TO Shibley Telhami, the Anwar Sadat professor for peace and development at the University of Maryland, "the humiliating scenes of abused Iraqi prisoners" and the war in general "have turned that country [Iraq] into a model to be feared and avoided in the eyes of many in the Middle East, and a tool in the hands of governments reluctant to change." Telhami, who was a driving force behind a recent major Muslim-targeted public-diplomacy project chaired by former assistant secretary of state Edward Djerejian and paid for by Uncle...

<p>MUSCAT, Oman -- Omanis went to the polls in their first free elections to elect an advisory council Saturday.</p> <p>A "good" turnout was reported midday, with more than half the registered voters casting their ballot at some polling stations, Saeed bin Mohammed al-Braiki, deputy chairman of the Elections Commission, told The Associated Press.</p>

opinion On Arab Democracy Avi Davis and Khaleel Mohammed 06 March 2003 Those expecting democracy to spring to life in Iraq soon after an allied invasion might wish to recall the fate of another Arab strongman from 36 years ago. In June, 1967, Egyptian president Gamal Abdul Nasser was sitting in the darkened studios of Cairo Radio, with a barely a candle to illuminate his script. His voice cracking, he delivered his political testament: "We expected the enemy to come from the east and the north, but instead he came from the west. I must accept full responsibility for this...