- Joined
- May 22, 2010
- Messages
- 13,567
- Reaction score
- 2,170
So basically Children of Men?
Well to be fair Tunisia has more or less democratized and Western Europe did not democratize in 8 years either. That said I'm not saying MENA will inevitably look like Western Europe. I tend to think Fareed Zakaria's prediction about the rise of illiberal democracies has truth to it as we see with the rise of the likes like Putin and I think illiberal democracy could easily spring up in the Muslim world.
People say Islam is incompatible with democracy but if that's true its only if by democracy you mean liberal democracy. The idea of electing one's leaders has plenty of history in the Islamic world and in fact it was more democratic before adopting European style government since the less efficient and less centralized household style of governance relied more on intermediaries that had some level of democratic legitimacy like the elected Shaykhs of the quarters and guilds.
Yes, I'm talking about illiberal democracies, after all you mentioned liberal democracies in the OP. I think they will become more popular than strongman dictatorships, that and chinese style single-party state.
Illiberal or corrupt democracies is what rules in latin america too, you can vote, you can move freely, but it's always the same guys at the top amassing fortunes and buying votes. Institutions are compromised making them unaccountable.
Another one I forgot to add to the list, the Philippines, they were never truly democratic in the western sense but Duterte is on another level as authoritarianism goes.
There is also Myanmar, people thought it was going to become a liberal democracy with a nobel prize winner at the top. LOL.