Category: Lebanon

Arab democracy depends on normalizing Islamist parties

     

Arab democracy would simply be inconceivable without Islamist participation, writes Brookings analyst Shadi Hamid. That, by itself, should give us pause, particularly at a time when Western democracies appear uninterested or even… Read more »

Democracy vs. clientelism, sectarianism in Lebanon elections

     

It will take more than one election cycle to get democracy to satisfy the expectations of the Lebanese people, according to Louisa Slavkova and Rob Norris, who served as National… Read more »

Middle East has ‘too much democracy’?

     

  Tunisians are aware of their country as the only one in the Arab world trying to make the Islamist–non-Islamist divide work in a genuinely democratic way, notes Thomas Carothers,… Read more »

Lebanon ≠ Hezbollah: only limited election success for pro-Iran party

     

Hezbollah and its allies have won a small majority of seats in Lebanon’s first parliamentary election in nearly a decade, boosting its influence and giving its patron Iran greater sway… Read more »

Polls expose Lebanese fears yet Hezbollah ‘disinclined to foment domestic unrest’

     

  With little over a month to go before Lebanon’s first national vote in nine years, experts are gauging the pulse of the electorate, tuning in to elements including turnout,… Read more »

Beyond Sunni and Shia: challenging sectarianism in a changing Middle East

     

One could be forgiven for thinking Iraq remains a tangled mess of sectarian division and political failings, whose people are incapable of resolving their differences and working together to rebuild… Read more »

Countering violent extremism: learning from other democracies

     

How does terrorism end? Is it effective as a means of securing political power? Robin Wright asks in The New Yorker: Sinn Féin—the I.R.A.’s political wing—is the most popular party… Read more »

How illiberals, uncivil society transition from protest to power

     

Civil society activists have often struggled to make the transition from protest to politics, to effect a shift from social movement to party in power. Illiberal and authoritarian movements –… Read more »

Expected decline in Arab democracy confirms unrealistic optimism

     

The shortcomings of democratization as a vehicle for regional reform and transformation are confirmed by the findings of the latest Arab Democracy Index, analysts suggest. The intra-Arab collaborative index is… Read more »