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Publication Policy Paper 2: Resilient Authoritarianism in the Middle East
While celebrating a historic turning point in Egypt and Tunesia, it is also clear that authoritarianism will remain a prominent feature of Middle East politics. The spectrum of regime types in the region will expand. It may even come to include democracies. Yet as the cases of Syria and Iran demonstrate, not all regimes will experience political openings. Eventhough the region might be transformed in the years ahead, the cases of Syria and Iran remind us that the political landscape of the Mi...
Publication Policy Paper 1: Re-thinking Civic Activism
Despite the sustained and genuine efforts of committed civic activists, and a ‘surge’ of civil society organisations and democracy promotion over the course of the past two decades in the Middle East, hopes for genuine and far-reaching democratic reforms have reached an apparent dead-end. This is in apparent contrast to civil societies in Latin America, Eastern Europe, Africa and Asia, which also faced authoritarian regimes and yet managed to engender democratic changes. Consequently, this Mi...
The Political Implications of a Common Approach to Human Rights
The topics of human rights and civil society provoke a lively debate on both sides of the Mediterranean. It is important to underline the fact that in the political arena these two issues are particularly emotive. Working Paper 18 examines this synergy, looking at the role of external participants (in this case, Europeans) in promoting democratic values, and looking at the reception that has been given to this “interference” by official bodies of the societies in question. The debates and con...
Authoritarianism and the Judiciary in Syria
Working Paper 17 analyzes the role of the judiciary in Syria’s strongly authoritarian setting wherein ‘the rule by law’ serves as a tool of repression; qualities that have far-reaching implications for foreign assistance programs on judicial reform, the rule of law and reform generally. Firstly, the paper argues that Syria showed since 1963 a zigzag pattern wherein modest and indeed inadequate levels of judicialization were interrupted by significant lapses into extra-judicial violence, but m...
Civil Society in Iran: Transition to which Direction?
In Working Paper 16 on the state of civil society in Iran, Sohrab Razzaghi makes a number of claims and offers recommendations for bolstering independent civil society in Iran. Two of the most thought-provoking points concern the role of the UN in propping up state-sponsored and dependent civil society as opposed to independent civil society and the influx of former political insiders into independent civil society. Razzaghi writes: At present, and for the first time, an opposition has emerge...
Re-rethinking Prospects for Democratization
Literature on democratization rarely gives attention to the ‘big picture’. More often, scholars select one (or a few) key factors which are supposedly essential for democratization to take place or for a democracy to maintain its vibrancy.As a result, many blank spots within research on democratization remain existent. Working Paper 15 goes beyond such approaches. Democratization is a highly complex matter. A holistic framework is needed and, therefore, within this paper the concepts of democ...
Will Syrian Blogs Liberate us All?
"Western journalists have found in Syria the ideal setting and cast of characters to triumph a vision of a Western-style media system bringing “freedom” to an autocratic country." In the article Will Syrian Blogs Liberate us All? published some time ago on arabicpress.wordpress.com it is argued that in the case of Syria Western news outlets focus mostly on bloggers and secular/pro-democracy activists only to exclude those who perhaps do not adhere to a vision of a Western, liberal s...
Iran: Legalizing the Murder of Civil Society
Arseh Sevom recently published Legalizing the Murder of Civil Society. The report looks at a bill coming up for a vote on the floor of Iran’s parliament that would completely change the legal procedures for registering and operating civil society organizations. Arseh Sevom's paper analyzes the impact of the proposed law. This bill,The Establishment and Supervision of NGOs, if ratified and executed as written, would mean the end of legally operating, independent civil society in Iran.
Freedom of Association in the Mediterranean Region, A Threatened Civil Society
The Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Network recently published its fourth annual Report assessing the evolution of the situation of NGOs in the 11 countries of the East and South Mediterranean region and in Europe.A close examination of recent developments in the Euro-Mediterranean region reveals that freedom of association has experienced setbacks in the past few years and there has been very little positive development worth mentioning. Since 2007, some countries have amended their laws on...
Mapping the Arabic Blogosphere: Politics, Culture, and Dissent
The Berkman Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University conducted a study of the Arabic language blogosphere using link analysis, term frequency analysis, and human coding of individual blogs. The authors identified a base network of approximately 35,000 active blogs, created a network map of the 6,000 most connected blogs, and with a team of Arabic speakers hand coded 4,000 blogs. The goal for the study was to produce a baseline assessment of the networked public sphere in the Arab...