Middle East Research and Information Project

Critical Coverage of the Middle East Since 1971

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MER Article

Al Miskin (Winter 1998)

RODINSON BANNED AT AUC

(Author not identified) • 3 min read

MER Article

The Malaise of Turkish Democracy

In his first televised interview in late 1996, just months after taking office, an avuncular-looking Necmettin Erbakan seemed unsurprised at a question about his taste in clothing. “Mr. Prime Minister, we hear that you favor ties by the Italian designer Versace,” said commentator Mehmet Ali Birand.

Aslı Aydıntaşbaş • 11 min read

MER Article

Perspectives on Elections from the Arab World

Some of the material in this issue of Middle East Report was generated at the October 2-3, 1998 conference on “Multi-Party Elections in the Arab World: Controlled Contestation and Opposition Strategies,” which as organized by MERIP board members Marsha Pripstein Posusney and Jillian Schwedler. The c

Kamal Khaled, Hani Hourani, Mohamed Karam, Gamal Abdel Aziz, Issam Naaman, Mudar Kassis, Sion Assidon • 6 min read

MER Article

A Paradox of Democracy?

On April 27, 1997, Muhammad Zabara stood outside a polling station in the old city of Sanaa. In a neatly pressed suit and tie, his short hair and mustache freshly trimmed, he greeted voters who had turned out for Yemen’s second post-unification parliamentary elections. A team of Western election mon

Jillian Schwedler • 12 min read

MER Article

Algeria's Contested Elections

Western evaluations of the 1997 legislative elections in Algeria were broadly positive, or at least acquiescent. One European diplomat remarked laconically the day after the poll that the results “don’t cross my pain threshold”; another gave the elections a rating of “six out of ten” as far as their

Hugh Roberts • 11 min read

MER Article

Winner Takes All

Eight Ways to Make Elections Risk-Free 1. When drawing the lines of the constituencies, remember to integrate as many opposition supporters as possible into your own constituencies and to transfer as many of your own supporters as necessary into the opposition’s strongholds in order to maintain the

Iris Glosemeyer • 1 min read

MER Article

Mission: Democracy

Incumbent national leaders invite foreign election monitors only when it is in their interest to do so. Rarely is significant financial assistance “conditional” on holding elections, although it does improve a regime’s image abroad to do so. For governments being observed, the trick is to orchestrat

Sheila Carapico • 11 min read

MER Article

Charting Elections in the Middle East

Although Middle Eastern countries have seen a dramatic rise in the number of national elections, there is a significant problem with “charting” the march of democracy in the region through a narrowly focused analysis of electoral processes. Numerous political, economic and cultural forces affecting

Mark Levine • 2 min read

MER Article

Behind the Ballot Box

The last decade has seen multi-party competition for elected legislatures initiated or expanded in Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Yemen, Kuwait, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority. Executive authority in most cases remains an uncontested, if not completely unelected, post. Nevertheless

Marsha Pripstein Posusney • 11 min read

MER Article

Room to Breathe

Less than a block from the seventeenth-century walls that surround Rabat’s medina (old city) is the Association Tamaynut. Inside the three-room office one can attend meetings, listen to lectures and participate in passionate discussions. A young man, Ibrahim, is there every weekday from morning unti

Daniel Burton-Rose • 9 min read

MER Article

Beirut Dispatch

Two things one hears daily in Lebanon: The government is more corrupt than ever, and relations between people are becoming harsh. Let’s consider whether any correlation exists between government neglect and widespread individual survivalism. And let’s focus on highway transportation, where public po

K. S. • 3 min read

MER Article

Two Faces of Janus

Eight years after the end of the war in Lebanon, the discrepancy between free minds and free markets is growing ever sharper. Since 1992, Lebanon’s billionaire prime minister, Rafiq al-Hariri, has been the individual most responsible for outlining an economic program for the post-war era. The prime

Michael Young • 10 min read