Prospects for democracy and development in the Middle East and North Africa 15 years after the Arab Uprisings

Jeremy Wildeman and Iyas Abu-Hajiar

Chapter 14 in The Elgar Companion to Democracy and Development in Africa, 2026, pp 248-265 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: This chapter takes stock of the state of democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), 15 years after the Arab Uprisings, which began in Tunisia and then Egypt – two cases examined in the chapter. Elsewhere, the Uprisings faced violent counter-revolutionary actions, and some devolved into vicious civil wars. The chapter argues that aspirations for democracy are alive and well in the Arab world and unlikely to be repressed indefinitely. External interventions, from within and outside the MENA region, have prevented the emergence of institutions and civil society structures that are necessary for representative governance, and for MENA countries to independently achieve economic and institutional development. To the extent that such external interventions may not be as present in sub-Saharan Africa, it may provide sub-Saharan African countries with enough space to form partnerships, including by drawing on non-Western developmental models more appropriate for their own context.

Keywords: Arab Uprisings; Democracy; Egypt; MENA; Tunisia (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035348176
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