Pacted Democracy in the Middle East

“After a decade of counter-revolutionary backlash, Hicham Alaoui offers a much-welcomed alternative to the current impasse, with this solid study of how a pacted transition could drag Arab countries out of the dictatorial quagmire.”

—Jean-Pierre Filiu, Professor of Middle East Studies, Sciences Po, Paris School of International Affairs, France

“Hicham Alaoui presents a bold and rigorous endeavour to explain how a ‘democratic pact’ could work in the Middle East notwithstanding the religious factor that is too often perceived as preventing the democratisation of the region. A sound and timely critic of the ‘Muslim exceptionalism.’”

—Olivier Roy, Professor, European University Institute, Italy

“This unique study is a cry from the heart for democratization of Muslim majority countries coupled with theoretically sophisticated, empirically grounded analyses of how democratic transitions can be secured.”

—Bob Springborg, Visiting Professor, Department of War Studies, King’s College, London

“This book provides a fine-grained, paired comparison between Tunisia and Egypt in the immediate aftermath of the ‘arab spring’ political upheavals of 2011.”

—Laurence Whitehead, Senior Research Fellow, Nuffield College, Oxford University, UK

This book provides a new theory for how democracy can materialize in the Middle East, and the broader Muslim world. It shows that one pathway to democratization lays not in resolving important, but often irreconcilable, debates about the role of religion in politics.  Rather, it requires that Islamists and their secular opponents focus on the concerns of pragmatic survival—that is, compromise through pacting, rather than battling through difficult philosophical issues about faith.  This is the only book-length treatment of this topic, and one that aims to redefine the boundaries of an urgent problem that continues to haunt struggles for democracy in the aftermath of the Arab Spring.

H​icham Alaoui is Research Associate, Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, Harvard University, USA.