Searching where the light shines: Studying democratization in the Middle East

For several decades, political scientists who work on the Middle East have been asked by both disciplinary and policy audiences about the region's prospects for democratization. We encounter difficulties in answering that question because it arises from American disciplinary and policy preoccupations, not from regional political dynamics. As a result of those preoccupations, Middle East political scientists have neglected some of the major political forces in the region, while contributing to the development of general comparative theories of democracy and democratization only at the margins.