MENA and Democracy

According to Bellin, the Middle East has been resistant to democratic reform for multiple reasons; the rentier nature of many of the region’s economies, international political stances on the region, bureaucracy, nepotism, and patronage within the states’ power systems, and the limited degree of popular mobilization.  I think that Bellin’s argument holds in some ways, but may be slightly outdated in others. I think that the revolts in 2011 partly disproved her assertion that democracy does not exist in the MENA region due to a lack of popular mobilization. I think that, while it may be harder to mobilize, the MENA region is obviously not innately incapable of mobilization. I think that the region’s civil society is “weak and… an ineffective champion of democracy” because the powers that be are aware of the threat strong civil society could pose to their authority, and therefore attempt to stifle the growth of civil society. However, the success and popularity of organizations such as Hamas, which began as civil society, can be used as proof that civil society in the MENA region is not always weak.