Rethinking%20Arab%20Democratic%20Transitions

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Arab Democratic Transitions?

• Rethinking Arab Democratic Transitions
• Democratic Gains
• Challenges
• 1- Political Islam
• 2- Gender
• 3- Alternation of Power
• 4- Human rights

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Rethinking Arab Transitions

• Limitations of Theory
• Peculiarities
• Exceptionalism

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Democratic Gains

• Frequency
• close to 50 elections b/w 1989-1999 ? 5 per year
• Participation
• voter turnout 80
• voting age lowered to 18 in many Arab states

• Contestation
• multiparty elections
• opposition field candidates
• Habituation
• voting rights exercised
• voter rolls
• regularity of voting

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Challenges

• 1- Political Islam
• Caveats
• Explaining the impasse
• Islamizing democracy? Democratizing Islam?
• PI in the Democratic Process

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Islamic Action Front

• IAF (Jordan) ? approximates a political party
• Cadres ? mostly civil not religious or both
• Democratic procedures inside front
• Alternation of leadership
• Broad consultation, deliberation aggregation of
  political preferences

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Challenges

• 2- Gender
• Inclusive Politics
• Away from state feminism
• Women and the electoral process

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Jordanian National Forum for Women -- JNFW

• Objectives spreading awareness among Jordanian
  women of the content of the national strategy
  which was ratified in 1993 and which aims to
  improve womens status, involve them in the
  national development ..., and promote their legal
  status and increase their participation in
  decision-making

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The Jordanian National Committee for Women

• To amend legislation obstructing womens
  participation in development and enacting new
  legislations and policiesemphasizingtheir full
  participation.
• To create public awareness regarding the
  importance of womens roles and their status in
  the progress the Jordanian society.
• To increase womens participation in development
  and to create job opportunities for them ...

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Jordanian Constitution

• Chapter Two
• Rights and duties of Jordanians
• I. Jordanians shall be equal before the law.
  There shall be no discrimination between them as
  regards their rights and duties on grounds of
  race, language or religion.

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• Since elections of 1997, more women are lobbying
  for a quota system ? reach parliament in 2001
• 20 quota in the LHP (16 seats of the 80-seat
  parliament)

• Queen Noor I would prefer to have the various
  political parties elect women to their high
  cadres and this may have women represent their
  parties in parliament.

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Women in Egypt's Parliament

• Under-represented
• Women activists reconsidering quota system
• Tokenism within government/opposition
• Females less than 3 of candidates in elections

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