Exercise of authority over and the performance of functions for a political unit; usually classified by the distribution of power within it.
The modern Middle East is a large and diverse region, the differences well illustrated by the structures and dynamics of governments in the area. There are nearly as many types of government as there are states, and many of the systems undergo almost constant change as the need to accommodate domestic and international pressures emerges. Since the terrorist attacks of 11 September 2001 some states are seen by the United States and other nations as failed or rogue states that pose an imminent threat to world security, and international forces have compelled "regime changes" in the region (Afghanistan, Iraq).
Constitutional government is not deeply rooted or widespread in the Middle East. Israel's democracy rests in part on a series of basic laws that provide a framework for governmental action rather than on a formal written constitution, but this does not affect its role as a parliamentary democracy. Syria has a constitution with the trappings of constitutional government, yet hardly qualifies as a democratic regime. Other states have written constitutions, but these rarely provide a clear guide to governmental action. The Republic of Turkey, however, is a significant exception.
The legislative institutions of Middle East states generally are limited in number and power. In much of the Middle East, the legislatures are rarely representative bodies, although when present they often perform useful functions. In some of the Persian Gulf states, such as Saudi Arabia, Oman, and the United Arab Emirates, there exist consultative bodies that generally serve at the pleasure of the ruler but also tend to legitimate the ruler's actions. This function has proven particularly critical in times of crisis and challenge to the regime. In some instances elected (although not in wholly unfettered processes) legislatures are involved in lawmaking and engage in criticism of the regime despite regime-imposing limitations. Such legislatures have existed in Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Syria, and Yemen. Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait experiment with such systems, whereby the democratization process in Kuwait after the liberation from Iraqi occupation was slow. The form of legislative dynamic most familiar to Western observers exists in Israel and Turkey (and did exist in Lebanon until the 1975 civil war). In Israel the parliament has antecedents in the British model. The Turkish government has been subjected to periodic military interference, but parliament has been empowered to bolster Turkey's membership plea for the European Union. In both countries legislatures are freely elected, real political opposition exists, and multiparty competition is the norm.
Throughout most countries of the Middle East, political opposition is still controlled, as are elections. Morocco is undergoing a constitutional reform since the coming into power of King Mohammed VI in 1999. The recent dramatic change in the foreign policy of Libya has not yet changed the autocratic regime within. Algeria is still in a process of reconstruction of civil society, and the reform process in Tunisia is still slow as of early 2004. As in Morocco the key to democratization in all these countries is an approach to give human rights (not at least the rights of women) a prominent place on the reform agenda.
The politics of the Middle East are dominated mostly by the individuals of the executive branches of government who control a country's system and its decisions. More often than not, this is a single authoritarian individual, whether his title is king, prince, general, or president. Most Middle Eastern governments can be classified as authoritarian; the autonomy of their political institutions is limited, and there are serious constraints on personal political freedoms. Individuals' political rights and personal freedoms are not accorded considerable attention in most of the region's systems, and are rarely guaranteed. Nevertheless, despite the range and extent of government control over the public sector and formal governmental activity, totalitarian regimes are not a conspicuous regional feature, as there is often a clear separation between the public and private sectors, with the private sector insulated from governmental interference.
Forms of Government
Authoritarian systems include several major forms of government, including monarchy (absolute or constitutional) with a king, prince, or sultan at its head. The monarchic principle is firmly rooted in Middle Eastern tradition and history. Such leaders - caliphs, sultans, shahs, khedives, shaykhs, and amirs - have held the reins of government in some areas for centuries, often sustaining control through hereditary succession. Monarchies have been seen as legitimate forms of government, even if individual monarchs were given to excesses in the assumption or exercise of power. Monarchies were established by the British, or at least with their acquiescence, in Iraq and in Transjordan during their respective mandates. The coup in Iran after World War I shifted dynasties, but monarchy was retained until the Islamic Revolution in 1979. Egypt retained its monarchy until 1952 and Libya until 1969; Morocco, Jordan, and the Persian Gulf states still maintain the tradition of monarchical rule. Turkey's caliphate-sultanate was terminated after World War I; the imamate of Yemen survived until the 1950s. The formal change from monarchy to republic does not, however, assure an end to personal control of the affairs of state. On the contrary, often the deposed monarch has been succeeded by a popular leader or dictator, such as Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in Turkey, Gamal Abdel Nasser in Egypt, or Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
A republican form of government was formally established during the French mandate over Syria and Lebanon, and these two states emerged from French control after World War II as republics. Nevertheless, they soon moved in very different directions, with Lebanon retaining at least the form of a republic and Syria establishing a single-person system, which has been dominated by the al-Asad family since the early 1970s.
Political pluralism is a rare feature in the Middle East, restricted to Israel and Turkey and, arguably, Lebanon and some minor Gulf states. In Israel, the tradition of proportional representation and coalition government, which originated in the British model for the prestate Zionist structures in Palestine, has helped to generate party pluralism. In Lebanon, the National Pact of 1943 divided elected and appointive government positions proportionately among the various religious denominational groups. Although it has survived since the French mandate and has been modified various times since, its premise of proportional ethnic and religious representation remains a central feature of Lebanese politics, albeit buffeted by civil war. Turkey is a prominent example of a state that has moved from a one-party to a multiparty system since 1945.
Periodically, suggestions have been advanced for political change and reform as well as for further democratization of the states in the region, but these have rarely advanced beyond the stage of pronouncement, thereby allowing the retention of existing structures and types of government. As part of its "War on Terror," the administration of U.S. president George W. Bush has argued for a democratization of the region, whereby the use of foreign force for such regime changes is seen as a legitimate tool. The transitional constitution in Iraq may pave the way for such approaches, as it is a consensus of major ethnic and religious factions under U.S. guidance.
Islamic governments (theocracies) have been the exception, not the rule, in the Arab world - Israel is a Jewish state but not a theocracy, and Turkey abolished the caliphate in the 1920s and proclaimed itself a secular state. An Islamic government was installed in Iran only after the Iranian Revolution and the ouster of the shah in 1979. The role of Islam in government has varied. Most Islamic states are so described because the majority of their populations are Muslims and they utilize elements of Islam to guide their activities. Many of their constitutions include provisions that the state is Islamic, that Islam is the established religion, or that certain officials (generally, the head of state) must be Muslim, but in most states some of the elements of Islam coexist with extensive borrowings from Western and secular conceptions of government and political life. In some states, Islam has been used as a mechanism for achieving and sustaining the legitimacy of the regime; in others it has been a mobilizing force to generate popular opposition to government policies. The Iranian revolution (1979) established a regime in which Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and the clerics who supported him dominated the executive, legislative, and judicial branches of government as well as the military, the media, and the Revolutionary Guards, and traditional Islamic law was enshrined as the law of the land. The structure of government was one peculiar to the Shiʿite system of Iran as molded and guided by Khomeini; it achieved its form only after significant internal discord among varying interpreters of the legacy of Shiʿism. The Iranian model has not been emulated in other states, and it is under pressure in Iran itself. No Arab country has yet formally established an Islamic government, although Saudi Arabia has many of the trappings, including a shariʿa-based legal system and the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques (king) as head of state (king).
Bibliography
Bill, James A., and Springborg, Robert. Politics in the Middle East, 5th edition. Glenview, IL, and London: Longman Publishing Group, 1999.
Black, Antony. The History of Islamic Political Thought: From theProphet to the Present. Edinburgh, U.K.: Edinburgh University Press, 2001.
Hudson, Michael C. Arab Politics: The Search for Legitimacy. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale University Press, 1979.
Long, David E., and Reich, Bernard, eds. The Government and Politics of the Middle East and North Africa, 4th edition. Boulder, CO, and London: Westview Press, 2002.
— BERNARD REICH
UPDATED BY OLIVER BENJAMIN HEMMERLE
