As the more popular explanations about why we havent seen democracy in the middle east. So lets start with the popular explanation. Often times people say that theres something unique about the religion of islam or the culture of islam that has prevented true democracy in the region. So this is something that i engage with seriously in the book and first of all i argue well probably some truth to that but lets look at the empirical record. Look at the number of muslim Countries Worldwide inside the middle east and outside the middle east easily you can say about 60 of those countries have democracy or transitioned towards democracy. So, host i just want to say, an example. Guest well turkey is considered a democracy indonesia, all muslim majority countries. The problem is when we look at countries the arab world. There seems to be this strong correlation between authoritarianism or lack of democracy, and arab muslim countries. Why is it that the arar muslim countries have not democrati
Well, theres been about five decades of votes have mostly repeat that most of us getting for a textbook until now. Finally we have got a book. We been waiting five decades for this because all of the books this one goes back and looks at the cases. The author, no introduction can do it justice, but i have to say a couple things. He wrote a book in 1968 called the future of conservatives and were the fourth defending final chapter was the rise of reagan, two years into his first term as governor, 12 years away from being president. Hes been ahead of the curve for a very long time and continues to be so. He interviewed one of maccarthy suspects indicating as a reporter in the 50s. I got to do a little piece of this. They manage to get one of the files on the part the suspect from fbi and was wheeled out in a shopping cart. These and gentlemen, its hard to forget anybody wheeled in a shopping cart. That is a visual that stays with you. He is a College Curriculum as it should be rolled up