Nearly all countries neighboring Saudi Arabia already practice one form of electoral participation or another, although most of these nods toward democracy are defective in some way. For years, ordinary Saudis watched with envy parliamentary debates on Arab satellite channels, in countries richer than theirs, such as Kuwait, as well as in poorer ones, such as Yemen and Jordan.
几乎所有沙特阿拉伯的邻国都承认，民主制度在某种程度上是有缺陷的，尽管如此，他们都已经尝试了一两种选举制度。几年来，沙特的平民百姓羡慕地看着卫星电视上一些其他国家进行议会辩论，其中不乏比他们富裕的国家，如科威特，以及比他们贫穷的国家，比如也门和约旦。