IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/erg/wpaper/622.html

Autocracies, Democratization, and Development in the Arab Region

Author

Listed:
  • Samir Makdisi

    (American University of Beirut)

Abstract

The burning questions facing the Arab region today are: will the uprisings/revolutions of Tunisia (Dec. 2010) and Egypt (Jan. 2011) usher a sustained move from autocracies to substantive democracies in the Arab World (the Tunisian/Egyptian effect) accompanied by solid and equitable development? Will researchers in the future be talking about a pre and post 2010 Arab World? Indeed, will the march towards democracy in both Tunisia and Egypt be fully consolidated with all their developmental implications? The author offers remarks that he believes might shed led light on basic issues pertinent to any attempt to address them. The paper start with remarks on the politico/economic environment: the interaction of economics and politics with reference to the Arab Region; then focuses on the reasons for the hesitant Arab democratization process, i.e. the reasons for the persisting Arab democracy deficit in the post second world war period through 2010; and follow up with brief observations on the transition from autocracy to a democracy (open society) in the Arab World with the success of the recent Tunisian and Egyptian uprisings in removing the old regimes in mind though as of this writing their ultimate outcome in consolidating truly democratic orders remains uncertain.

Suggested Citation

  • Samir Makdisi, 2011. "Autocracies, Democratization, and Development in the Arab Region," Working Papers 622, Economic Research Forum, revised 09 Jan 2011.
    • Handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:622
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://erf.org.eg/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/622.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: http://bit.ly/2m664XH
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Douglass C. North & John Joseph Wallis & Barry R. Weingast, 2006. "A Conceptual Framework for Interpreting Recorded Human History," NBER Working Papers 12795, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    2. Noland Marcus, 2008. "Explaining Middle Eastern Political Authoritarianism I: The Level of Democracy," Review of Middle East Economics and Finance, De Gruyter, vol. 4(1), pages 1-30, January.
    3. Mustapha K. Nabli & Carlos Silva-Jáuregui, 2009. "Democracy for Better Governance and Higher Economic Growth in the MENA Region?," International Economic Association Series, in: János Kornai & László Mátyás & Gérard Roland (ed.), Corruption, Development and Institutional Design, chapter 3, pages 37-67, Palgrave Macmillan.
    4. Barro, Robert J, 1996. "Democracy and Growth," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 1(1), pages 1-27, March.
    5. Przeworski,Adam & Alvarez,Michael E. & Cheibub,Jose Antonio & Limongi,Fernando, 2000. "Democracy and Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521793797.
    6. Platteau, Jean-Philippe, 2008. "Religion, politics, and development: Lessons from the lands of Islam," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 68(2), pages 329-351, November.
    7. Acemoglu, Daron & Johnson, Simon & Robinson, James A. & Yared, Pierre, 2009. "Reevaluating the modernization hypothesis," Journal of Monetary Economics, Elsevier, vol. 56(8), pages 1043-1058, November.
    8. Przeworski,Adam & Alvarez,Michael E. & Cheibub,Jose Antonio & Limongi,Fernando, 2000. "Democracy and Development," Cambridge Books, Cambridge University Press, number 9780521790321.
    9. North, Douglass C. & Wallis, John Joseph & Webb, Steven B. & Weingast, Barry R., 2007. "Limited access orders in the developing world :a new approach to the problems of development," Policy Research Working Paper Series 4359, The World Bank.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mr. Marc G Quintyn & Sophia Gollwitzer, 2012. "Institutional Transformations, Polity and Economic Outcomes: Testing the North-Wallis-Weingast Doorsteps Framework," IMF Working Papers 2012/087, International Monetary Fund.
    2. Sambit Bhattacharyya, 2011. "Growth Miracles and Growth Debacles," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13609.
    3. Chittawan Chanagul, 2009. "Democracy and Economic Development," Vienna Economics Papers 0911, University of Vienna, Department of Economics.
    4. Tommaso Nannicini & Roberto Ricciuti, 2010. "Autocratic Transitions and Growth," CESifo Working Paper Series 2967, CESifo.
    5. Daron Acemoglu & Suresh Naidu & Pascual Restrepo & James A. Robinson, 2019. "Democracy Does Cause Growth," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 127(1), pages 47-100.
    6. Pettersson, Jan, 2003. "Democracy, Consolidation and Growth," Research Papers in Economics 2002:16, Stockholm University, Department of Economics, revised 15 Dec 2004.
    7. Matteo Cervellati & Alireza Naghavi & Farid Toubal, 2018. "Trade liberalization, democratization, and technology adoption," Journal of Economic Growth, Springer, vol. 23(2), pages 145-173, June.
    8. Dincecco, Mark & Katz, Gabriel, 2012. "State Capacity and Long-Run Performance," MPRA Paper 38299, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    9. M. A. Bautista & F. Gonz�lez & L. R. Mart�nez & P. Mu�oz & M. Prem, 2020. "Chile’s Missing Students: Dictatorship, Higher Education and Social Mobility," Documentos de Trabajo 18163, Universidad del Rosario.
    10. repec:jpe:journl:1368 is not listed on IDEAS
    11. Kangoye, Thierry, 2011. "Does Foreign Aid Promote Democracy?," WIDER Working Paper Series 064, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    12. Gennady Bilych, 2013. "Democratic Changes and Economic Growth," Business and Economic Research, Macrothink Institute, vol. 3(1), pages 461-486, June.
    13. Profeta, Paola & Puglisi, Riccardo & Scabrosetti, Simona, 2013. "Does democracy affect taxation and government spending? Evidence from developing countries," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(3), pages 684-718.
    14. Teles, Vladimir K & Pereira, Carlos, 2013. "Are Political Institutions Substitutes for Democracy? A Political Economy Analysis of Economic Growth," Brazilian Review of Econometrics, Sociedade Brasileira de Econometria - SBE, vol. 33(1), September.
    15. Markus Brückner & Antonio Ciccone, 2011. "Rain and the Democratic Window of Opportunity," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 79(3), pages 923-947, May.
    16. Campante, Filipe R. & Chor, Davin, 2014. "“The people want the fall of the regime”: Schooling, political protest, and the economy," Journal of Comparative Economics, Elsevier, vol. 42(3), pages 495-517.
    17. Philip Nel, 2006. "When Can the Rabble Redistribute? Democratization and Income Distribution in Low- and Middle-income Countries," Working Papers 43, ECINEQ, Society for the Study of Economic Inequality.
    18. Johannes Fedderke & Julia Garlick, 2012. "Measuring Institutions: Indicators of Political and Property Rights in Malawi," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 106(3), pages 491-521, May.
    19. Thierry Kangoye, 2011. "Does Foreign Aid Promote Democracy?," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2011-064, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    20. Freund, Caroline & Jaud, Melise, 2013. "Regime Change, Democracy and Growth," CEPR Discussion Papers 9282, Centre for Economic Policy Research.
    21. Saibal Ghosh, 2010. "Does Political Competition Matter for Economic Performance? Evidence from Sub‐national Data," Political Studies, Political Studies Association, vol. 58(5), pages 1030-1048, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:erg:wpaper:622. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Namees Nabeel (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/erfaceg.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.