MER Article Review Barbara Daly Metcalf, ed., Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1996). JoAnn D'Alisera • 6 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