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Democracy without Democrats
In this article, John Waterbury argues that lack of sustainable democratic involvement among the Arab Middle East countries is fueled by the existence of several factors. The most prevalent cause of the failure of democracy is the continued warfare and conflict that many states in this region have experienced. This as a resulted has created authoritarian political leaders who further suppress the possibility of exercising democratic rights among the citizens. In addition, existence of middle class with no decision on whether to support democracy or not has made the situation worse. This worsened by the fact that most of these middle class citizens depend on public employment thus have to follow what the authoritarian leadership tells them while those in private sectors live in fear of losing their financial position if they go against the government. In addition, the existence of the culture of obedience among the Islamic communities have made the citizens become slow in seeking for democratic change as they have to obey what their law and leaders state.
The reasons for those seeking the need for democracy may also be termed to lack a specific goal. While some groups in the Middle East states have lobbied for the end of authoritarian leadership, most of these groups are motivated by divided interest thus creating lack of unity in pushing for democracy. According to the writer, those who have put an effort towards seeking democracy are the people in the community who may have failed in accomplishing their political agenda and as a result, they feel that democracy is the suitable way of achieving their personal goals. In addition, existence of oppression towards the poor and religious groups in Middle East makes those belonging to such groups feel that democracy may help in ending the oppression. This shows that democrats are not entirely rejecting the current regime but they feel that democracy is an alternative way to ending the existence of conflicts of interests.