Why is democracy struggling in the Middle East? Is it a good thing or a bad thing that democracy is struggling in this region?

Democracy is struggling because the big shots of the world (read US, UK, France and so on) want it to. It is thier interest that the middle east remains a bunch of squabbling territories under dictaters who sell oil cheaper and answer to them. Obama's unhappiness when Hosni Mubbarak was ousted from Egypt says it all. For them an independent and democratic Middle East means no control over oil which in turn means their position as ' The Big Shots' is gone. But can the middle east find democracy despite this? Maybe. Egypt did. A whole bunch of countries are fighting for it. Its a tough fight because noone wants them to win. But i believe they will. Good or bad? It is great if u live in those countries as u reap the benefit. The bad side? ask the families of the 100,000 people killed in Syria in the past two years.

In any type of country, with any type of socio-economic history it has, democracy is the best form of governance. People should govern themselves for their own good. A participatory democracy leads to good governance, transparency, accountability on top of eradicating social evils like poverty, hunger etc. Each citizen gets a voice that is heard, a vote which can be cast to decide his own fate. The recent Arab Spring where many dictators were ousted by the angry protesters shows this. Tunisia, Libya, Egypt etc had dictators for many decades, and this directly affected the people and their prosperity. All the citizens were angry because they did not have the basic freedom that the other democratic countries have. Democracy is the form of government in which the people of the country are entrusted with the power to decide who should rule them. It also means the existence of political rights like right to peaceful protest, freedom of speech, right of peaceful assemble and a free press. Such democratic governments with all political rights ensured in letter and spirit have been examples of assuring the people a meaningful, rights-based, secure life even in multi-cultural, multiethnic and multilinguistic societies. Examples are South Africa, Brazil, India, France, United States. In case of Middle East nations, a true democracy with assured fundamental political rights is the best way of giving a hope for peaceful co-existence. Though a few countries in the region have democratically elected governments like Turkey, Syria, Afghanistan, the people of these countries are divided by religious schism, ideological divides etc. In many countries minorities are not given freedom to express their opinion. There is flagrant existence of fundamentalism, hegemony of the rulers over the ruled, crushing of freedom of press etc. Syria witnesses armed clashes between Shia and Sunni sects of Islam. So, to stop all kinds of multi-ethnic fights, and to empower the minorities (Kurds, Sunnis/Shias), to make sure all freedoms (Speech, Expression, Press, Assemble etc.) are given, an elected democracy based on universal adult suffrage is the best type of government.

Democracy cannot exist in a vacuum. It cannot be superimposed. It cannot be artificially rooted in any society. For democracy to be successful socio economic conditions of society needs to be stable to some extent. After that democracy by itself can guide the process towards its growth, both horizontally and vertically. The problems of middle east have been created in history. The Middle east was divided into British and French Mandates after the Ottoman Empire lost in the WWI. The region was divided without taking into consideration any ground realities. Thus, countries such created had either Shia majority or Sunni majority. The persecution of minorities has been a constant source of tension in the region. Even today, the Shia-Sunni divide is tearing the region apart. Large scale sectarian violence has destabilized the region. Two leaders of opposite camps , Iran and Saudia Arabia have a deep mistrust between them. With US no longer interested in policing the Middle East(shale gas discovery), the order is breaking down. Iran's pursuit of nuclear technology is only increasing the mistrust between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Saudia Arabia funded Pakistan's nuclear programme as a safety against nuclear Iran. Radical terror groups are trying to seize power by use of violent methods. ISIS is trying to re establish a Caliphate to seize the leadership of Muslims all around the world. Israel-Palestine conflict strengthens the fundamentalist groups and provides them with ready martyrs. Interestingly, ISIS is fighting the war with aid received from Western countries who in a hurry to dispose Bashar Al Assad in Syria were blinded by the orthodox ideology of ISIS. Arab Spring in Egypt was an outcome of rapid inflation in prices of bread. Hossini Mubarak was disposed off but "democratic" governments after that were not able to provide a stable environment and economic growth has suffered since. Military has cleverly leveraged its position to come to power in a legitimate way and protect its interests. More than democracy people want prosperity and cheap bread. "Democracy" is struggling for the same reason why seeds struggle to grow without proper nourishment in the soil. World powers have tried to superimpose democracies or protect dictatorships solely for the purpose of protecting their interests in a resource rich region with utter disregard to the concerns of local people. The way I see it, democracy is struggling because the society is struggling. It is neither good nor bad because that only time will tell.

it is struggling because of religion. However I am sure that if there was no religion the people who want the struggle to occur would find other reason to facilitate conflict over there. It is a good thing for some sides and bad thing for others. However in general it is a bad thing since people are dying for stupid reasons. The ones who benefit from this conflict are israel, turkey, and emirates, saudi... aka the ones with no conflict. they benefit logistically as there logistic lines will be used instead of war torn countries like syria, egypt, iraq, lebanon...