Source: Current History
The Rise and Fall of Political Reform in the ArabFor a few years in the early 2000s the Arab world appeared to be entering a period of political reform without confrontation. In most countries, opposition groups were trying to use legal channels of political participation to increase their influence and force regimes to accept democracy.
In countries with elected parliaments, all parties, including Islamist ones, showed more interest in taking part in elections. Even in Gulf countries without formally democratic institutions, pressure was increasing on governments to make room for at least partially elected parliaments or for municipal councils, or to allow “political societies” to operate even though parties were banned. Reformers both inside regimes and in the opposition emphasized strengthening representative institutions and increasing political participation, while trying to avoid defiance and conflict.
Today, the hope for reform without confrontation has waned in most countries. Governments throughout the Arab world have abandoned the pretense of reform and are reconsolidating their grip on power. They are narrowing opportunities for political participation by manipulating laws and closing the space in which political parties can operate. Reform, it is increasingly clear, depends less on the design of formal processes and institutions than on power relations among factions within nations.