The Contemporary Middle East Democratization Of The Islamic Countries A Number Of Issues

Democracy is a common goal of all mankind, and democratization an important part of the modernization of politics. However, the democratization in the Islamic countries in the Middle East is quite slow and lagged behind other countries. This is a unique phenomenon deserving our attention. Taking Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, and Saudi Arabia for examples, this dissertation makes a study of this phenomenon by analyzing the democratization, the social economic development, and the operation of the political systems of these countries.Chapter 1 puts forward a clear analyzing structure. This chapter first introduces the research by foreigners of the democratization in the Islamic countries in the Middle East, and then refutes the advocacy "Middle-Eastern Exceptionalism". It further defines democracy and democratization and clarifies the prerequisites for democratization.Chapter 2 makes researches into the relation between Islam and democracy. It analyzes this unstable relation from the viewpoint of values. It points out that Islam plays an indirect and indecisive role in the process of democratization in the Islamic countries. Allah-loyalty-order is the embodiment of the traditional Islamic culture. This culture brings about the mass political characters ?believers in Islam, subjects of a feudal ruler and abjectly obedient citizens. The combination of the two produces an oppressive and authoritarian system of government. Therefore, the traditional culture has become the obstacle to the modernization and democratization in the Middle Eastern countries. However, its influence on the democratic practice is indecisive, many factors in this culture such as shura, ijma, and ijtihad are helpful to the construction of democracy in modem Middle East. The change of the relation between religion and government is an important factor in the process of democratization in the Middle Eastern countries. The unification of religion and government hinders the democratization. Influenced by the development of history, Iran is carrying out democratization under the religious authority. The separation of religion from government creates more possibility for carrying out democratization, but this does not mean that democratization will go on smoothly. There is often a stage of authoritarianism in the process from secularization to democratization and secularization is very important to the religious reform.Chapter 3 analyzes the influence on the democratization of the social economic development in the Middle Eastern countries. It probes into the complicate relation between economy and democracy by analyzing the social economic development both in some countries and in the whole Middle East. Economic growth and democratization do not develop synchronously. Economic crises in these countries can be the reasons for people in authority to carry out democratic reforms and to strengthen their political control. The privatization after the 1980s were slow and exerted little direct pushing effect on the democratization.Chapter 4 analyzes the relation between authoritarianism and democratization in the Islamic countries in the Middle East. It compares the three different types of authoritarianism in the Meddle Eastern countries: traditional authoritarianism, modern authoritarianism and a mixture of the two. It also probes into the historical reasons and actual bases for the existence of authoritarianism in the Middle East and points out that authoritarianism is an inevitable stage in the process of independence and modernization of the Middle Eastern countries. In the modern authoritative countries in the Middle East, the attitude of the leaders to the democracy has changed from exclusion to advocacy. They exclude democracy to strengthen their control, and they advocate democracy in order to comply with the will of the people. They want to increase the legitimacy of the authoritative regime through a democratic procedure. Its positive meaning cannot be denied, but this is a kind of limited democracy under authoritarianism.Chapter 5 c...