Arab Perestroika

by Michael Young December 17, 2009

written by Michael Young December 17, 2009

In early November, the Western media was awash with material celebrating the 20th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Not surprisingly, these echoes had turned into a hollow clang by the time they reached the Arab world. So, are Arabs really incapable of grand transformative change, particularly democratic change, and if so, why? The question is both fair and beside the point. Everyone will provide a different answer; trying to nail down such a momentous query is unlikely to lead far, raising only more questions. Aligned against those, present company included, who believe that the region is capable of deep democratic change, there are those who will present “culturalist” arguments to the effect that Arab states don’t have the historical baggage required to set up democratic orders. As their societies have always been autocratic, the argument goes, Arabs are therefore predisposed to autocracy. Others will go further to

Michael Young

Michael Young is a senior editor at the Malcolm H. Kerr Carnegie Middle East Center in Beirut and editor of Diwan, Carnegie’s Middle East blog. Previously, he served as a contributing editor at Executive magazine in Lebanon. Young also worked as opinion editor and columnist for The Daily Star newspaper . He writes a biweekly commentary for The National (Abu Dhabi) and is the author of The Ghosts of Martyrs Square: An Eyewitness Account of Lebanon’s Life Struggle. Young holds degrees from the American University of Beirut and the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Arab Perestroika

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