Ideas of democracy and political liberalization have recently become central to political debate within and about the Middle East. The current focus on the merits of democratic practice in many areas of the world, coupled with the spread of economic liberalism, will inevitably, according to some accounts, bring about a measure of political pluralism. Against this, the persistence of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, together with the fragility of experiments with democracy, have revived an old argument: are Islam and democracy essentially irreconcilable? This text aims to bring together many of the best-known writers on Middle Eastern politics. Challenging the assumption that the Middle East is a unique case, they offer new frameworks within which to analyze the process of democratization.

Ghassan Salamé is Director of Studies at the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) and Professor of International Relations at the Institut d'Etudes Politiques in Paris. He is the editor of The Foundations of the Arab State( 1987) and of The Politics of Arab Integration (1989).