The Democratisation Failure in the Middle East: Causes and Prospects

Sirvan Karimi

doi:10.18778/1641-4233.29.03

Authors

Sirvan Karimi York University, School of Public Policy and Administration, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8952-9503

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1641-4233.29.03

Keywords:

democracy, democratisation failure, liberalism, Left’s anti-liberalism, Middle East, kinship, religion, tribalism

Abstract

It has almost become conventional wisdom among analysts and experts on Middle Eastern politics to relate the fate of the democratisation process and its failure in the region to the foreign policy platforms of the USA and its Western allies. Contrary to the prevailing interpretations of democratisation failure in the Middle East, it will be argued that the historical proclivity of leftist organisations and parties to conflate anti-imperialism with fostering hostility towards liberal values, the limited scope of industrialisation, and culturally and religiously ingrained competing loyalties are factors that have cumulatively made a significant contribution to the cultivation of a socio-political environment that is not receptive to democracy.

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Author Biography

Sirvan Karimi, York University, School of Public Policy and Administration, Faculty of Liberal Arts & Professional Studies

Dr. Sirvan Karimi is an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy and Administration at York University, Toronto, Canada. In addition to publishing several scholarly articles, he is the sole author of two scholarly books; 1 – Beyond the Welfare State: Postwar Social Settlement and Public Pension Policy in Canada and Australia. Toronto: the University of Toronto Press, 2017 and, 2 – The Tragedy of Social Democracy. Winnipeg: Fernwood Publishing, 2015. He has been teaching courses at both graduate and undergraduate levels since 2007. He has been teaching courses in fields of the Canadian government, Comparative Politics, Public Policy, Public Administration, and Public Law. He has also supervised MRPs for several MA students in the Master of Public Policy, Administration, and Law (MPPAL) programme at York University. He has been recognised for his teaching efforts with a variety of teaching nominations and awards, including being nominated for the President’s University-Wide Teaching Award for 2013–2014 and receiving the Dean’s Teaching Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Faculty of Liberal Arts &Professional Studies for 2015–2016.

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