Many Arab poeples have lost their faith in democracy after a decade of the failed „Arab Spring“. The democratically elected parliaments were unable to fix important issues like corruption and the economy. A majority Arabs prefer according to surveys in lots of Arab countries, a strong leader with large powers, albeit the effectivness of a government is for them more important than its form.
The parliamentarial democracy in the arab world is in my opinion a failed experiment an if most arabs want to believe in representative democracy, then the representatives should stop representing their own interests, but those of the people. Nowadays Arab countries are rather interested in a better boss than a better system even through some new autocrats, like in Egypt, are maintaining apearances of a democratic system. The heads of state or government in Egypt, Iraq, Libanon, Libya, Marocco, Sudan, Syria and Tunesia will probably establish a long term rule, probably to be ended within decades with a military coup or another popular revolution.
Arab rulers are mostly replaced with a new supreme leader, not with any kind of collective leadership and so Arab peoples mostly take an active part in politics thourgh pressure their authoritarian government for instance through the fear of being replaced by another ruler. Economic and (anti-)corruption policies will likely decide the fates of some head of states as well those of their peoples. Democratic evolutions are by the way more likely in Latin America and Eastern Africa, whereas old an young democracies worldwide have to be carefull not to shift into authoritaranism. Democracy in the Arab world is in my humble opinion not an well received option for at least an entire generation. 10 years of unhappy experices with democracy could destroy a nation’s faith in this political system. One unsuccessfull and alcoholic Russian president mismanaged post-soviet Russia until prime minister Vladimir Putin replaced him and took the command over a Russian population which could not associate its first democratic adventure with a happy outcome, much like the Germans before and the Tunesians after.
Democrats should not import ideas their into other nations, because this could go wrong terribly and they should protect democracies in this unstable jungle-world, like in Ukraine.
Julien Sita, July, 6th 2022.
New Ideas in public forum 