ABSTRACT
1989 and the fall of the Soviet empire did not trigger a democratic movement in the Arab world, for a variety of reasons. First, times were not ripe: political mobilization in the Arab streets used to occur around either pan-Arab or pan-Islamic issues, both embodied by the Israeli–Palestinian conflict. The fall of the USSR was consequently perceived through its geo-strategic dimension, not in its own political dimension. The disappearance of the only super-power that steadily supported Arab nationalism against the perceived American–Israeli alliance was seen as a blow for the Arab cause. The second reason is that the different opposition movements in most of the Arab countries were not stressing democratization, but were sticking to an ideologically loaded agenda, either pan-Arab or pan-Islamic. In fact there were few actors promoting democratization as such: even the liberal elites were reluctant to endorse a democratization process that could bring Islamists into power.
