Can conquests centuries ago explain the democratic deficit in
the Arab world today? THE popular unrest that swept north Africa
and the Middle East in 2011 has injected fresh life into an old
debate: can democracy come to the Arab world? There is no doubt
the region suffers from a democratic deficit. Arab League states
account for almost a third of the world's autocracies, according
to a democracy index constructed by the Economist Intelligence
Unit, a sister company of The Economist. The challenge is
understanding why. Popular theories include those that cite Arab
or Islamic culture, the corrosive impact of regional conflict,
or the curse of oil wealth. But research* by Eric Chaney, an
economist at Harvard University, offers another explanation with
deep institutional roots. Expect the theory to get a mixed
reception: it is a brave economist who ventures into the
specialist domain of Arabists. Mr Chaney's attention was caught
by the fact the “Arab” democratic deficit extends beyond the
modern Arab world. In f