Foreign influence and authoritarianism in the Middle East

Abstract or Introduction

Democracy and the Middle East. Throughout history, those two meanings were not compatible at all. Authoritarianism, on the other hand, is something that is associated with the Middle East. Since their independence, only two countries have experienced democracy for a more extended period, Israel and Turkey. (only Lebanon had a short period of democratic stability) The democracy index shows that the Middle East is the most authoritarian region with 3.5 points. (www.eiu.com) The euphoria during the Arab Spring was as big as the disappointment and the disillusion afterward. Except for Tunisia, the situation in the Middle East did not change but got even worse. Yet, the question about the middle eastern susceptibility towards authoritarianism remains. Many variables, such as pre-colonial state structures, patriarchy, ethnicities, level of poverty, or the colonial legacy, could answer this question. The following research paper will focus mainly on the variable of foreign influence in the middle east. The Paper's thesis statement is: Authoritarian systems in the Middle East are most likely to persist with a nation's foreign power. This variable gained, especially during the Arab Spring, new attention. The western countries (USA, EU) and Russia interfered, with sanctions, military, monetary or political support for or against the regime, into the Middle Eastern nations' internal struggle.