Talk:Democracy in the Middle East

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I thought I'd kick of the talk page here! Off the top of my head we might want to include:

Some food for thought? Gareth Hughes 22:56, 20 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Definitely food for thought, and important for constructing this article. These are all good topics, and I hope we can go for a topical approach (as opposed to country by country) as much as possible. The importance of minorities (both in power and out) in particular is something that perhaps isn't talked about enough. I think we can make good progress filling out these important topics.--Pharos 00:51, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Clarification: do you mean "the Middle East", or "the Middle East and North Africa"? If the former, Morocco seems a dubious candidate to invoke. - Mustafaa 01:05, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I had meant to use a broad definition of Middle East, including North Africa, simply because the areas are connected culturally, politically etc. The linguistic distinction is not a major issue to me either way (I know its a little silly geographically to call North Africa part of the "Middle East"), but I think it's useful to treat them together.--Pharos 01:11, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Fair enough; but in that case, maybe we should move it to "Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa". - Mustafaa 01:21, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

That's OK with me, but I hope we wouldn't have to change the name again to include a little about Afghanistan.--Pharos 01:34, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I would have thought Afghanistan didn't belong here at all. Are you sure you don't mean "Democracy in the Muslim world"? - Mustafaa 01:39, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

  • I know, I know, regions of the world aren't exactly defined, and Afghanistan is further from the "Middle East" than North Africa, but noone can say whether Afghanistan is in Central Asia or South Asia either. I recognize that Afghanistan is really a very borderline case, but considering recent history it's probably something that should be talked about to some extent at least. Pakistan, for me, would definitely be going too far (no, I'm definitely not talking about "the Muslim world").--Pharos 01:50, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

FYI, there is an Islamic democracy article that might be useful to reference at appropriate places. - BanyanTree 04:40, 21 Feb 2005 (UTC)

OK one can't include Afganistan in the Middle East anymore than you can include California in the MidWest. If you Include North Africa You really should change the name to "Democracy in Countries Conquered int he first wave of Muslim Expansion which Still Have a Muslim Majority" The Most important section is or should be on Baathism which mat at the moment be not doing that well but reamains the great home for democracy. --81.138.194.190 18:09, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I want to cum. Gareth Hughes 18:43, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I take your point; I would be rather inclined to have separate articles on Democracy in the Maghreb and Democracy in Central Asia. - Mustafaa 20:38, 25 Feb 2005 (UTC)

Here's are a few interesting articles on democracy in the Middle East and the Muslim world that we may find helpful:

Marina Ottoway, et al., "Democratic Mirage in the Middle East," Carnegie Endowment for Ethics and International Peace, Policy Brief 20, (October 20, 2002). Internet, available online at: http://www.ceip.org/files/publications/HTMLBriefs-WP/20_October_2002_Policy_Brief/20009536v01.html

Chris Zambelis, "The Strategic Implications of Political Liberalization and Democratization in the Middle East," Parameters, (Autumn 2005). Internet, available online at: http://www.carlisle.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/05autumn/zambelis.htm

[edit] Expansion

Should this article expand on the governments in some of the important or notable countries, or just link to, say, Politics of Bahrain? | Mr. Darcy talk 15:12, 5 October 2006 (UTC)


I had to change the way some footnotes were made as they would have conflicted with the format of wikipedia's guidelines.Any new footnotes added would not have been in correct numerical order. Sophielaursen 01:54, 15 February 2007 (UTC)

[edit] NPOV, citation, Wikification, and opening paragraph

I've made some edits and I think I've resolved most of NPOV statements either by removing them or attaching citations. So, I've tentatively removed the NPOV warning for the entire article. Incidentally, most of the citations were done when I got here, but I guess nobody felt comfortable enough to remove the warning? While there are still a few citation-neededs and a couple of related problems in the article, I felt it was pretty safe to get rid of that too. I made an effort to wikify the main body of the article. I think it was mostly successful although of course it could be improved.

THAT SAID I think the opening paragraph of this article is very poor. Perhaps the original author would like to take another whack at it or someone could come up with a better preamble. This one not written concisely at all. It's full of run-on sentences. It had some POV problems that might persist, though I took out the most glaring one. Other than that I think this article is getting closer.

Also, I would say that the article smacked of an American bias, which certainly is not in line with the guideline that articles should include all relevant cultural perspectives. I kept the US point of view in, properly cited, where necessary (especially in the current state section), but I think this is a main problem with the opening paragraph.

Egypt and Syria do not have regular competitive elections for presidency. Paragraph is not clear about that and gives a non-neutral and incomplete opinion. Please revise. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Patrick.N.L (talk • contribs) 02:07, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Bias, Political agenda, suggest deletion or rename + re-working

The heading says it. If the title of the article was 'Government in the Middle East, that would be a good start. Otherwise the whole thrust of the article is promotion of a Non-NPOV! Fremte 23:02, 3 September 2007 (UTC)