124 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 19:1 

Challenges to Democracy in the Middle East 

William Harris� Amatzia Baram, Ahmad Ashraf, 
Heath Lowry, and Yesim Aral. 

Princeton, NJ: Markus Weiner Publishers, 1997. 132 pages. 

Many scholars have attempted to tackle the question of why democracy has 
seemingly failed to take root in the Islamic milieu, in general, and the pre ­

dominantly Arab Middle East, in particular, while the rest of the world has 

witnessed the fall of"pax-authoritaria" especially in the wake of the demer 
cratic revolution triggered by the failure of communism. Some view this 

resistance to the Third Wave, as being rooted in the Islamic cultural dynam­

ics of the region, whereas others will ascribe it to the level of political 

development (or the lack thereof). An anthology of essays, Challenges to 
Democracy in the M iddle East furnishes the reader with five historical case 

studies that seek to explain the arrested socio politico-economic develop­

ment of Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Iran, and Turkey, and the resulting undemer 

cratic political culture that domjnates the overall political landscape of the 
Middle East. 

The first composition in this omnibus is "The Crisis of Democracy in 

Twentieth Century Syria and Lebanon," authored by Bill Harris, senior lee-









128 The American Journal of Islamic Social Sciences 19:1 

Ashraf, and Arat place emphasis on cultural factors. Notwithstanding all 
these shortcomings, with organization, each essay on its own is reasonably 

informative of the individual topics that it seeks to accentuate. 

Kamran Asghar Bokhari 

Graduate Research Assistant 
Center for Middle Eastern Studies 

University of Texas at Austin 

Austin, Texas