Challenges for democracy in countries affected by the 'Arab Spring'

The Arab spring started the transformation of long-lasting regimes in the MENA region into democracies from the bottom up, as a series of grassroots, leaderless movements, with the people's cry for change facilitated by, among other things, new communication technologies. But overall, the so-called Arab revolutions would have been impossible without the help of the military. The military was the cornerstone of the former authoritarian regimes, but when it allowed the change, part of these 'revolutions' became top-down managed by military elites. This article postulates that these social uprisings were not true revolutions, but rather calls for a transition or transformation of the existing regimes into different institutional patterns. Toppling the regimes and having the first free elections is not enough to consolidate these young democracies. This article argues that there are four criteria for the consolidation of democracy: 1) constitutional consolidation - constitutional institutions need to be consolidated; 2) consolidation of representatives - political parties and interest groups need to be consolidated; 3) consolidation of behaviour - will the veto-actors defy and challenge the new democracy?; 4) consolidation of democratic political culture - will the values of the people challenge the values of a democratic regime - and if so, will the values of Islam challenge democracy?