Burhan Ghalioun is director of the Centre d’Etudes sur l’Orient Contemporain and professor of political sociology at the Sorbonne. He is the author of a dozen works on the politics and sociology of the Arab world including, most recently, Islam et politique: La modernité trahie (2003). This essay was translated from the French by Philip J. Costopoulos.
October 2004, Volume 15, Issue 4
The lack of democracy in the Arab world is a problem that goes far beyond the absence of competitive elections. This lack must be traced not to religion or culture, but to adverse historical and geostrategic circumstances.
