What different kinds of governments are found in the Middle East?

Answer 1

As concerns Middle Eastern regimes in the most general sense, there are a few noticeable patterns. Note: Since many Arab regimes are undergoing massive internal changes due to the Arab Spring, this answer may become dated very quickly.

1) Illiberal Democracies: Many Arab Nations were Liberal Democracies on paper with guaranteed voting rights, freedoms of speech and religion, constitutions that bind the authority of the Executive. In nearly every Arab regime that this describes (like Saddam Hussein's Iraq, Mubarak's Egypt, ben Ali's Tunisia) these paper rights and limitations on paper did not exist. These rulers used an apparent mechanism of democracy to perpetuate a Dictatorship.

2) Absolute Kingdoms, Sultanates, and Emirates:There is no difference between a Kingdom and Sultanate except that the rulers have different names (King vs. Sultan). An Emirate is similar to a Kingdom but takes up less space (i.e. Principality). The Arab World has an impressive number of Absolute Monarchs (such as those who rule various Emirates like Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar, those who rule Kingdoms like Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, and those who rule Sultanates like Oman). These monarchs control their people through direct edicts and typically run a nepotistic government.

3) Constitutional Monarchies: There are some Kingdoms (like Jordan and Morocco) where the King is constrained by a Constitution and requires a Parliament to pass laws. However, the strength of these Parliaments is often minimal and the politicians are typically considered untrustworthy (while the King is well-received).

4) Military Juntas: Algeria and Qadhafi's Libya were organized as Military-Run Governments with the leaders officially styling themselves as Presidents but being perceived as Caudillos. As opposed to the leaders of Illiberal Democracies, even the Constitutions of their countries (which are useless) do not legitimate them in the way that Illiberal Democratic Dictators are legitimated on paper. (If we are strictly talking about the Middle East, the historic Iraqi government of Ahmed Hassan al-Bakr and that of Abd el-Karim Qasim would qualify.)

5) Compromised Government: In Situations with various powerful ethnic groups like Lebanon (with its Maronite, Shiite, and Sunni communities) and Iraq with its (Shiite, Sunni Arab, and Kurd communities) there are democracies which guarantee certain positions in the government to a certain ethnic group so that one group cannot dictate policies for all the other groups. This often results in fights over census taking as that might lessen a particular group's strength and actual group on group violence to intimidate voters of one ethnic group to vote for a candidate that also supports whatever objective would help the perpetrator who is of a different ethnicity. This results in very fragile agreements.

6) Theocracy: This is not a unique style of government per se, but it concerns religion's central role in the management of government affairs. Theocracies can be Illiberal Democracies such as Iran. Iran is an Illiberal Democracy because although it has an elected parliament, the elections are controlled by the non-elected Supreme Council of Ayatollahs. It is a theocracy because the Ayatollahs are all clergy of the Twelver Shiite Islam religion. Saudi Arabia is also considered a theocracy, but it is a theocratic absolute monarchy because the Wahhabi Councils have strong influence with the Saudi King and in public policy.

7) Parliamentary Democracy: Israel, Turkey, and Cyprus have governments where all citizens over a certain age can vote for political parties that occupy seats in a Parliament and create a ruling coalition. This coalition appoints the Prime Minister and takes over the affairs of governance between the fair and non-fraudulent elections. If current Tunisia continues to behave the way it did in the previous election by the time the next election comes, it too will become a Parliamentary Democracy.

Answer 2

Community Answers

Answer 1

It depends on what country you look at. While all the Gulf states and the Kingdom of Jordan seems to be ruled by Kings and Emirs, the other Middle Eastern countries such as Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, and Yemen are republics ruled by Presidents.

There are monarchies, theocracies and democracies in the Middle East. Lebanon and Israel are democracies. Iran is a theocracy. Jordan is constitutional monarchy. Syria is republic with an elected legislative body.

Answer 2

An increasingly common form of government found in the Middle-east is that imposed on various countries by the US imperial forces. These usually are in the form of military dictatorships given the entirely false appearance of being "democratic" by the imposition of specially selected puppet "rulers" who are corrupt and therefore easily controlled by CIA imperialists.

Answer 3

The most common type is gov. haha