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REVIEW article

Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Peace and Democracy
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2024.1414973
This article is part of the Research Topic Review Symposium: The Problem of Democracy View all articles

Democracy with Adjectives? Economic Development and Democracy in the Middle East

Provisionally accepted
Salih Yasun Salih Yasun *
  • Virginia Military Institute, Lexington city, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Hamid (2022) advocates for the promotion of minimalist democracy for the Middle East. Can minimalist democracy respond to the aspirations of the Arab public? Using data from the Arab Barometer survey (2018), I emphasize that many citizens of Arab countries define democracy by its expected economic outcomes. Whether minimalist democracy can spur economic development is a puzzle. Literature on democratization and economic growth is inconclusive. In the Middle East and North Africa region, ballot box alone may not overcome significant barriers, such as overriding interest groups and corruption, to spur development. Democratic openings in the region often failed to promote expected economic growth. Therefore, while minimalist democracy would be an improvement for the current standards of governance in the region, it may fail to respond to the aspirations of the masses, making authoritarian reversion a likely outcome.

    Keywords: Democratization, development, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Institutions, Islamism and democratization

    Received: 09 Apr 2024; Accepted: 12 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Yasun. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Salih Yasun, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington city, United States

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