Getting to Pluralism: Political Actors in the Arab World by Marina Ottaway & Amr Hamzawy

Author:Marina Ottaway & Amr Hamzawy [Ottaway, Marina & Hamzawy, Amr]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Political Science, World, General
ISBN: 9780870032752
Google: 3GPSu-ODE1oC
Goodreads: 17472630
Publisher: Carnegie Endowment
Published: 2009-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Uncertain Future of Secular Parties in the Arab World

The “secular” parties discussed here are crucial to a democratic transformation in the Arab world, not because they necessarily constitute the true democrats in these countries, but because without their presence the political spectrum would remain extremely narrow, and political competition would be reduced to head-on confrontation between incumbent governments and Islamist movements. A more pluralistic arena, with a broad spectrum of political actors, would make politics less confrontational, although it would certainly not eliminate all obstacles to democratic transformation. To become competitive, however, secular parties and organizations in the Arab world would first have to undergo internal transformation. In particular, they need considerable change in three areas: their vision for society; the specific political message they transmit to their potential constituencies; and the way in which they organize.

Vision

Secular parties in the Arab world have been unable to project a vision for their countries for almost thirty years. The first vision for secular Arab parties was that of independence—the Moroccan Istiqlal and the Egyptian Wafd all started as nationalist, pro-independence parties. The second vision was the “socialist” one represented by single-party systems such as the Arab Socialist Union in Egypt and the Baathist parties of Syria and Iraq. More than socialist, it was a state capitalist vision of rapid economic growth and social transformation under the direction of the ruling regimes. It did not leave much space for individual freedom or initiative, but it promised growth and modernization and, at least for a while, it delivered.

Competing with these successive secular visions from the 1920s on, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and its sister organizations across the Arab world set forth a vision of a just Islamic society. As long as regimes were able to deliver a better life, or at least the hope of the better life, the Islamist vision did not become dominant. During the 1970s, the popular appeal of nationalist and socialist ruling regimes was greatly diminished by a series of Arab defeats in the struggle against Israel and by growing socioeconomic hardship as regimes could no longer deliver even the most basic services. Religious ideas became increasingly attractive, and Islamist movements began to command support among ever-widening segments of the population. In the countries where secular parties were allowed to operate, secular opposition parties also suffered. For example, liberal and leftist parties in Morocco and Egypt were trapped between failing authoritarian regimes and Islamist ideologies that promised easy solutions to all problems.

Thus far, secular parties have been unable to provide a new vision of their own. Like other leftist parties around the world after the demise of the Soviet Union, the Arab left has gradually embraced democracy and economic liberalism. Liberal parties have become more interested in the civil society arena and pushed—with varying degrees of success—for its autonomous organization. Yet those are less visions of a good society than open-ended processes that supposedly lead to a good society but may not. Citizens in many countries undergoing democratic transformations have

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