Democracy in the Middle East and North

Africa

By: Stormy Roberts, Angeles Chavez, Matt Davis, and Ravi

Chikhliya

Democracy Democracy- A system of government by

the whole population of all the eligible members of a state, typically through elected representatives.

Example: United States government

Democracy affecting countries in Middle East and North Africa

The governments in the middle east like to have control over their citizens, so the topic of democracy scares them because it would take the control away from the government.

For example, they restrict the religion the citizens have.

Middle East Today The unfortunate fact is that the region

has virtually no experience with Liberal Democracy. Its history of non-governmental political organization is severely limited. The region is mired in tribalism, sectarianism, brutally imposed secularism or Islamic law, dictatorships and monarchies. None of these are steppingstones to Democratic governance.

Israel The riots and in

Egypt due to the conversion to democracy has Israelis and their American backers scared of the possible change to democracy.

Egypt Democracy in Egypt

affects 18-29 year olds the most. Around a quarter of the population. (20 million). It hurts them the most because the youth are looking for decent jobs and better lives but it is hard for them to do so because of their environment of unequal opportunities.

Syria Election• Presidential Elections were held in Syria following the death of President Hafez Al-Assad. The only candidate was his son, Bashar Al-Assad. 94.6% of voters voted in favor of Bashar Al-Assad.

Democracy in North Africa By 2000 many countries were

undecided on what type of government to run. The wave of democracy in North Africa has been very uneven. The debate on Africa’s democratization is based on two main issues. 1.) Structural and contingent factors. 2.) Economic and political dimensions.