Democratic and authoritarian trends in the Middle East and North Africa.

Abstract

This paper on the basis of four indicators (political participation, rule of law, political and social integration, inclusiveness and non-discrimination) characterizes democratic and authoritarian trends in the Middle East and North Africa. Three factors were defined that contributed to consolidation of weak democratic standards in the region: the redundancy of natural resources, specific understanding of a role of religious leaders in society, the revolutionary wave against the European invaders and internal royal families in 1950-1970. In particular, it was noted that the Middle East and North Africa in terms of democracy are behind all other countries. In general, democratic values and institutions are still underdeveloped in the region, even after the revolutions of 2011. Only Tunisia has made successful progress towards democracy, based on the relatively strong parliament and a relatively weak president, which is a very rare model of government in the region where most countries have infinitely strong (powerful) head of state (only Lebanon and partly Kuwait have a similar model).