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Democratization in the Arab World?: Yemen’s Aborted Opening

Issue Date October 2002
Volume 13
Issue 4
Page Numbers 48-55
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Read the full essay here.

While President Ali Abdallah Salih continues to call Yemen an ’emerging democracy,’ it more closely resembles the autocracy of the pre-unification North.

About the Author

Jillian Schwedler is assistant professor of government and politics at the University of Maryland and chair of the Board of Directors of the Middle East Research and Information Project (MERIP), publisher of Middle East Report.

View all work by Jillian Schwedler

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Volume 17, Issue 1

Getting to Arab Democracy: The Promise of Pacts

Strategies based on transition pacts that reduce rulers' risks and cushion their retreat from total power may be the most promising route to democracy in the Arab world.

Volume 16, Issue 4

Iran’s Peculiar Election: The Struggle Against Sultanism

Given the unaccountable authority of the supreme leader, the Islamic Republic should be classified as a sultanistic regime. In such regimes, democratic change is more likely to come from nonviolent…

Volume 8, Issue 4

Islam’s Democratic Essence?

A review of Islam and Democracy, by John L. Esposito and John O. Voll.