democracy in the arab world

Democratization Experience of Iraq and the United Arab Emirates

Introduction

Countries in the Arab world have been said to be slow in democratizing their societies . One strand of thought in this debate even went as far as posit that the culture of Islamic societies are not compatible with democratic ideals and practices (Huntington , 2002 . This argument is not without its critics and detractors . In fact , according to Norris and Inglehart (2002 , lack of democratization is not only present in the Islamic societies . Rather , several political trends and issues present in Islamic

societies are also present in other societies in the world in which democratization is lacking

According to Dahl (1972 , there are eight institutional guarantees in looking at democratization in any society (1 ) the citizens of the society should be free to form organizations or join existing ones (2 they should also be able to freely express their ideas and opinions even in contentious issues (3 ) the citizens should be able to choose their leaders in elections (4 ) there should also be free competition in the sphere of politics and economics (5 ) information should also come , not only from government but also from other sources such as media (6 elections should be free , fair , and without manipulation (7 institutions should be strong and do play an active part in the political , economic , and social realms of the society and (8 ) citizens should be able to freely run for office

Given these guarantees , the democratization experiences of Iraq and of the United Arab Emirates are explored in this . The United States has intervened in this process and the country has recently implemented free elections . As such , it is interesting to see how the process of democratization is progressing in Iraq . On the other hand , United Arab Emirates is one of the fasting growing economies in the Middle East This is also interesting in the sense that economic liberalization tends to strengthen the democratization process

Democratization in Iraq

Iraq used to be led by Saddam Hussein under a dictatorship . The country has been torn by religious strife and conflict between the Sunni and the Shi 'ite Muslims . In addition to this , the country has been labeled as a cradle of terrorists and is a torn in the democratic process in the Middle East . Following up on its War on Terror , the United States justified its occupation of Iraq with allegations of the presence of weapons of mass destruction . However , when was found , the US justified the war by saying that it sought to bring democracy to Iraq

After the war in Iraq , the US initiated the painful transition from a dictatorship to a democratic system . It even sponsored the first ever free elections in Iraq , even giving suffrage to women . On the surface this seems to be a step towards democratization . Yet , there are still a number of issues to contend with . For one , the war continues to rage in the country and the outcome of the democratization process is...