Page 83 - Cyberculture and New Media

74 On the Way to the Cyber-Arab-Culture
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Without such a civil society, democracy cannot be developed and secured. A
democratic revolution is the cumulative achievement of citizens who become
actively involved in civic movements and independent media. Democracy
involves wide access by citizens to government information, and the freedom
to debate political issues at both interpersonal and societal levels, the latter
often through independent media. In sum, the democratization process aims
at bringing decision-making closer to the people affected by those decisions
and diffusing power in society. Furthermore, it includes notions of access and
accessibility, equal opportunity, fairness, and equity in social relations. Put
simply, democracy is not just a form of government. It is a pattern of thought
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and a way of life.

The globalization of national economies has also implied
the institutionalization of more liberal and democratic
schemes of governance around the world, including the
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Arab region.

In the Arab world, the term “democratization” does not necessarily
imply the same thing it does in the Western world. Ideas like the people’s
right to elect leaders at specified intervals, according to a carefully agreed-
upon procedure; the occasional exchange of leadership roles between
government and opposition; and the concept of loyal opposition, have not yet
taken root anywhere in the Arab world. Freedoms generally associated with
human rights are still in the painful process of asserting themselves.
However, throughout the Arab region the democratization process is ongoing,
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with some regimes more liberal than others. Although many Arab countries
have experienced a degree of political liberalism at some point in their
contemporary history – most notably Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon,
Morocco, and Syria – none of these experiences has given rise to fully
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fledged democratic systems. “Democratisation is not only about allowing
multi-party elections or enabling the independence of the judiciary, but also
about reconfiguring relations of power in order to open spaces for pluralism,
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diversity and inclusiveness.” The failure of political regimes in the Arab
world to deliver on democracy is coupled with other failures, such as the
slow pace of development and lack of responsiveness to rapid social change.
In fact, a system could not be described as democratic “if a democratic
principle could be used to usurp the individual rights of expression and
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association on which the whole system was dependant.”
In many areas of the world, democracy does not seem able to find
suitable environments in which to flourish. In the Arab world, the
appropriateness of democracy is widely debated, which in turn appears to
have an impact on the use of new media. The achievement of a democratic