Academic: Arab world will never go back to autocracy

Today's Zaman

Yonca Poyraz Dogan
May 31, 2012

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“In the age of globalization, it's impossible to maintain an undemocratic state,” said Bessma Momani, who is also a senior fellow at both the Brookings Institution and the Centre for International Governance and Innovation.

She also said people of the Arab world vote for Islamist parties because they trust how Islamists will handle the economy.

Momani said there is an overwhelming belief that economic factors are a key part of the puzzle of why the Arab Spring started. But contrary to the general belief, she said, the Arab Spring was not instigated by the poor underclass of the Arab world; …

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