EBP Week 9 - "Why do some Arab citizens see democracy as unsuitable for their country?"

This particular article attempts to question the viability and suitability of democracy in the eyes of Arab citizens in both African and Middle Eastern countries. Lindsay Benstead chose to use several theories based around democracy and test them against information gathered from surveys of Arab citizens in a selection of six countries. In doing so, this article aims to shed light on the reasons why some Arab citizens believe that democracy is unsuitable for their respective countries, even if they may view the system in a favourable light. I will seek to dissect three of the methods used within Benstead's article and comment on how useful they are in predicting attitudes towards democracy. Also, I will address some of the flaws in the argument that has been presented. In particular, how Benstead fails to address the Arab Spring protests that occurred throughout the early 2010s, and an over-reliance on Lebanon as a key subject throughout the article that undermines the value of the information presented to us. 

Benstead looks at various theories on democracy and evaluates their usefulness throughout the article. Firstly, we have the Islam thesis attempting to find a connection between Islam and a rejection of democracy. However, as illustrated within the article itself, the data from the model that Benstead has constructed offers very little support for any connection between the two. A particular focus has been placed upon Lebanon for this particular thesis, and for good reason: the Shi'a population may actually be more in favour of the implementation of democracy than the Christian population under certain conditions. This indicates that while religious identity may be a factor in whether or not an individual may reject democracy, we can not use it to definitively predict political attitudes in a particular direction.

Secondly, modernization theory shows more promise than the Islam thesis. However, one of the usual indicators of modernization, which is level of education, is seen as insignificant within this article. Instead, significance is placed upon whether or not citizens follow news media. This creates a confusing scenario, as both Morocco and Lebanon ranked rather poorly in this statistic, and yet their citizens are much more accepting of democracy than either Jordan or the Palestinian Territories, whose citizens are more likely to follow the news. With the confusing nature of the data, and its lack of consistency, it would not be wise to view the modernization theory as being reliable with the information given to us.

Finally, we look to government performance. Within the article, Benstead argues that this has the strongest link between a variable and the perception of democracy's suitability. In this particular instance, if a government is seemingly performing poorly, it positively correlates to the belief that democracy is unsuitable, and vice-versa. According to Benstead, this is true even within authoritarian regimes, as citizens are more likely to reject the regime in favour of democracy if they have confidence in the government and its institutions within their respective countries.

As stated above, this article has some flaws that need to be addressed. Firstly, and most importantly, Benstead fails to acknowledge the Arab Spring protests that took place throughout the early 2010s. These protests were centered around Arab citizens seeking to overthrow the regimes of their respective countries and implement democratic governments in their place. This flaw is exacerbated by the fact that protests took place in all six of the subject countries. This failure to address one of the most widespread movements towards democracy by Arab citizens undermines the core thesis of this article.

Secondly, we must look at the various countries being surveyed in this article:

• Algeria
• Jordan
• Lebanon
• Morocco
• The Palestinian Territories
• Yemen

These countries, for the most part, share a number of features that make them prime subjects for a shared investigation. Using this table below, we can see that all countries are home to a Muslim majority, with most other religions making up for less than 10% of the general population, and that the GNI per capita is below the average that would be seen in developed European countries across the board.

The main exception is Lebanon, which is home to a much larger minority group in the Christian demographic, and also has a GNI per capita that is, at least, double the other countries. Furthering the differences between Lebanon and the other five countries, it holds the highest freedom rating from Freedom House. Based on this data, we can see that Lebanon is an outlier in this particular survey and this is further exemplified in the table below. We can see that Lebanon is also the country that is the least likely to reject democracy generally, with a result 5% lower than the average.

Furthermore, Lebanon seemingly overshadows many of the other subject countries throughout the entirety of this article. This results in an article that presents information that undermines its own argument, as the state that seems to be the most likely to believe that democracy is suitable is being used as a main subject in the theories that seemingly proved a correlation between a variable and a belief that democracy is unsuitable.

While Benstead's article raises some interesting points as to what may cause an Arab citizen to believe that democracy is unsuitable for their respective country, her article is undermined by a lack of data, a failure to address one of the largest Muslim-lead pro-democracy protests ever seen, and an over-reliance on a country that should be seen as an outlier.



Works Cited:

Benstead, L. J. "Why do Some Arab Citizens See Democracy as Unsuitable for Their Country?" Democratization.  Routledge, 2014. 1183 - 1208

Blakemore, E. "What Was the Arab Spring and How Did it Spread?" National Geographic. (Last updated March 29, 2019) Retrieved September 16, 2019 from: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/topics/reference/arab-spring-cause/

"List of Sovereign States in Europe by GNI (nominal) Per Capita" Wikipedia. (Last updated September 11, 2019) Retrieved September 17, 2019 from: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_sovereign_states_in_Europe_by_GNI_(nominal)_per_capita