Reassessing the Reasons of Democracy Deficit in the Middle East Through the Role of Islam

Abstract

There has been a large number of challenges to undemocratic regimes of the Middle East by their populations due to the ban on their participation to the decision-making process. Among many factors, Islamic faith and legislation are regarded to have more role in political conflicts than others. Particularly, the idea that Islam and democracy are not compatible with each other has prevailed and led to other reasons to be ignored in debates. This study analyzes the reasons for democracy deficit in the region such as insecure circumstances that enable governments to abandon basic human and political rights, hydrocarbon revenues that make regimes non-dependent to populations, tribalism which is inherent to traditional Middle Eastern politics, the lack of civil society and the Islam effect. The study asserts that the role of Islam is unfairly exaggerated since it does not offer a certain political system. Besides, such approaches also mean underestimating the magnitude of the damages other reasons cause. By analyzing the impact of Islam on governance, its use as a tool by political and anti-political Islamists as well as its compliance with democracy, this research aims to reveal to what extent Islam can be attributed to democracy deficit of the region.

Keywords

• islam
• sharia
• middle east
• arab states
• authoritarianism
• i̇slam
• şeriat
• ortadoğu
• arap ülkeleri
• otoriteryanizm