ABSTRACT
Viewed from one perspective, Map 72, illustrating the levels of political rights and civil liberties in the Middle East, makes for dismal viewing. Only two countries, Cyprus (Greek) and Israel are classifi ed by Freedom House as “Free”. A further nine states (Afghanistan, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Turkey and Yemen) fall into the “Partly Free” category, while the plurality of Middle Eastern states are classifi ed as “Not Free”. From a more positive perspective, however, almost all states in the region are now freer (by Freedom House’s measure) than they were in 1998. Indeed, improvements in fi ve of the states (Afghanistan, Bahrain, Mauritania, Lebanon and Yemen) over this period have been suffi cient to lift them out of the “Not Free” category and into the “Partly Free” category. Hence, over the last decade or so, the general trend has been towards greater freedom in the Middle East. There is also quite wide variation within each category. For example, Turkey falls into the partly free category but is numerically close to the free category in both political rights and civil liberties.
