^Image spot’light’ is Ghassan Salamé (Lebanese Academic and more in Reading Reflections)^
Lisa Anderson’s article enlightens us with the interdisciplinary approach between area studies and political science. The Columbia University professor critiques western political scientists who try to apply their grand theories to the middle east, an area too unique to fit their approaches and hypotheses. Anderson posits that western political science approaches towards the Arab world are missing the light (which shines brightest on the region of study itself) and interdisciplinary lenses which are necessary to understanding the persistence of authoritarianism as well as the conundrum that is democracy in the Middle East.
Anderson goes on to explain that the patterns and answers we need come directly from the real world examples and the best evidence comes from local political scientists like Ghassan Salamé rather than western academics like Kramer and Mitchell whose focus on western categories and discourses distort the dynamics of politics in the Middle East through bad policy and scholarship (Anderson, 191). Anderson noted that Islam itself isn’t stopping democratization, but the government’s ability to use Islam for popular mobilization and as the rationale for government resistance to liberalization (Anderson, 197). Anderson continues to highlight Salamé’s insight into democracy in the region through his understanding of Dankwart Rustow’s well-known argument that democracy is the outcome of stalemated conflict (Anderson, 198) which the Middle East has seen very little of. Another suggestion Anderson makes falls under Area studies, specifically other regions around the world that have successfully developed democratic governments and policies for example countries in Latin American and Sub-Saharan Africa. Comparatively these countries can be described as ideal types, a model that political scientists can analyze, tweak, then test in the Middle East.
In our course we can compensate and avoid Andersons concerns by focusing on the persistence of authoritarianism in the region itself and not the supposed solutions to democracy theorized by political scientists.
The outcomes of the Arab Spring created a conflict that stalemated and although the governing bodies in the region are still considered authoritarian, the shift in the nation of Islam towards more democratic policies should be noted. I think even a small change in democratic ideology among citizens is historically significant in the long term development of democracy in the Middle East and North Africa.
Bibliography
Authoritarianism in the MENA 