Internal and external forces

Countries of the Arab world are unable to achieve democratic goals mainly because of lack of a political community that is receptive to the democratic aspirations of the entire population. This political community should be viewed in the context of the larger social setting at the national level. If the political class was receptive to the aspirations of social groups to bring about a transition into democracy, it would be possible for transitional governments to be put in place in order to give democratic leaders to compete for leadership in future democratic institutions.

The nature of the civil society groups in Arab countries, according to Whitehead, is an impediment to the democratization process (65). Whitehead observes that the policies they use to push for democratic transition are normative rather than determinist in nature. There is lack of a robust civil society that is able to build the right amount of social capital in order to put pressure on authoritarian rulers to pave way for the democratization process.

Anderson says that the political regimes that are found in Arab countries are a reflection of the political economies that have existed in these countries for many decades (78). The political culture in the Arab world is treated by western scholars with suspicion owing to the influences that it has gotten from Arab culture.

According to Anderson, the prototypical Arab political system is influenced by two main traditional kinship characteristics: (a) the informal, egalitarian, close-knit and personal character of ethnic organization and (b) the patriarchal authoritarian nature of all imperial governments in the Arab world (82). These characteristics are easy to discern if you are preoccupied with the issue of tribes when analyzing the political cultures of the Arab world.

If one employs political culture to explain the political systems of the Arab world, the findings will be that these systems are characterized by violence. It is interesting to note that such analysis obviously ignore comparisons with other political systems that exist in other parts of the world and more importantly, the impact of external influences on the systems of government that thrive in this region. Instead, relative importance is given to tribal traditions, Islam dictates and Ottoman legacies, all of which have led to violent methods of political conflict resolution.

Apart from being seen to promote violence, kinship ties, for example in Iraq, Afghanistan and Saudi Arabia, are also assigned the responsibility for weakness and sometimes absence of the associational life that have for a long time been considered the foundation of democratic politics.

Authoritarianism in the Arab is often attributed to Islamic beliefs. People from the outside world have strongly held this view, something that angers Arabs: both in the Diaspora and at home. In recent years, the association that is often made between made between Islam and extremist terrorist activities has not made the perceptions of the outside world any better regarding the nature of Arab politics. The more extremism continues to be hinged on religion, the bigger the impediment towards achievement of democratic processes and institutions becomes.

Anderson agrees with Hunnington, a comparative politics scholar who did a research in Egypt and whose findings were that Islam does not have a strong influence on the political attitudes among Egyptians (88). The investigator reported that matters of religiosity as they apply to a practical understanding of Islam are a neutral factor when the issue of development is being discussed. Islam neither hinders development, nor furthers it.

In the eyes of a foreign journalist, comparativist, academic historian, policy analyst and political scientist, an assessment on political culture in the Arab is mostly a negative one.  The negative tones of all assessments made concerning the Arab world are evident for all uninitiated observers to figure out. The effect of these partial assessments by foreign powers, contribute to hardening of authoritarianism by Arabian leaders as a way of stamping their authority and territorial integrity.