Political Aid and Arab Activism: Democracy Promotion, Justice, and Representation

What does it mean to promote "transitions to democracy" in the Middle East? How have North American, European, and multilateral projects advanced human rights, authoritarian retrenchment, or Western domination? This book examines transnational programs in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Yemen, Lebanon, Tunisia, Algeria, the exceptional cases of Palestine and Iraq, and the Arab region at large during two tumultuous decades. To understand the controversial and contradictory effects of political aid, Sheila Carapico analyzes discursive and professional practices in four key subfields: the rule of law, electoral design and monitoring, women's political empowerment, and civil society. From the institutional arrangements for extraordinary undertakings such as Saddam Hussein's trial or Palestinian elections to routine templates for national women's machineries or NGO networks, her research explores the paradoxes and jurisdictional disputes confronted by Arab activists for justice, representation, and "non-governmental" agency.

Author: Sheila Carapico
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 11/18/2013
Pages: 261
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.70d
ISBN: 9780521136914

Review Citation(s):
Choice 11/01/2014 pg. 529

About the Author
Carapico, Sheila: - Sheila Carapico is Professor of Political Science and International Studies at the University of Richmond and Visiting Professor of Political Science at the American University in Cairo. The author of Civil Society in Yemen: The Political Economy of Activism in Modern Arabia (Cambridge University Press, 1998), she has also researched and written about Yemeni, Egyptian and Arab political activism; American foreign policy in the Middle East; and the politics of international political aid.