The Arab World Is Normal

As various countries across the Arab world navigate difficult transitions from former dictatorships to new forms of governance, much remains unclear in terms of exactly how much citizen participation and government accountability will prevail. Egyptians, Tunisians and Libyans are at the most advanced stages of this process, which takes place in slow, plodding manners that include both the sophisticated arguments of cosmopolitan constitutional lawyers along with the crude street confrontations of tribes, gangs and spontaneous gatherings of angry citizens. One of the reasons why this process is so cumbersome and laborious is that – as the past few years have clarified – the Arab world is undertaking this historic reconfiguration of governance systems while also grappling with two other, more fundamental, elements of their national experiences: the nature of statehood and of sovereignty. These issues are usually defined in the very earliest stages of nationhood, and then mildly adjusted in subsequent years. In the context of today’s Arab world, the political transitions being experienced in some countries provide the first ever opportunity for citizens to discuss and agree on the core elements of their statehood and nationhood.