Authoritarian regimes in the Middle East

One of the most prominent characteristics of the political geography of Middle East is durable authoritarian regimes that have been prevalent in the region for a long time. Authoritarian regimes have decisive and long run influences on economic, social and cultural structures of the region as well as contemporary politics. Therefore, it is crucial to grasp the orgins and the dynamics of the authoritarian regimes in order to understand Middle East societies and politics. The purpose of this thesis is to offer a review of the academic literature on the Middle East authoritarian regimes. A critical appraisal will be held with respect to theoretical approaches which have been employed to analyse authoritarian regimes in the Middle East in terms of their contributions to the literature and their shortcomings. Hence, I hope, I can figure out the economic, political and social dynamics that lie behind the Middle East authoritarian regimes. To this end, the extant literature will be classified into two main headings with regard to origins and survival strategies of the authoritarian regimes. Having classified the literature, the last part of this thesis is devoted to a discussion on how can we scrutinize the political regimes. First, recent debates on the new authoritarianism in comparative politics will be evaluated. After evaulating the promises and limits of the new authoritarianism literature, it will be argued that analysing authoritarian regimes in the light of political power approach might widen and deepen the narrow perspective of mainstream regime studies. Furthermore, a power oriented approach might contribute to apprehending the origins and, material and symbolic survival strategies of political regimes. The political power approach that will be offered in the last chapter derives from the field theory of Pierre Bourdieu and power concepts of Michael Mann.