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Dr. Vincent Durac lectures in Middle East Politics at the School of Politics and International Relations in University College Dublin and is a Visiting Professor in Bethlehem University. He is co-author (with Francesco Cavatorta) of Politics and Governance in the Middle East (London: Palgrave, 2015) and of Civil Society and Democratization in the Arab World: the Dynamics of Activism (London: Routledge, 2010).
A Flawed Nexus?: Civil Society and Democratization in the Middle East and North Africa
The core assumption—building on a specific understanding of the recent political history of Latin America and Eastern Europe—is that civil society activism is positively correlated with democracy and democratization. However, a conceptualization of Arab civil society in liberal terms is destined to disappoint since liberal and democratic values have much shallower roots than would be required for successful challenge to authoritarian rule. Indeed, evidence is lacking either for the pro-democratic orientation of civil society in the Arab world or its capacity to drive democratic reform.
