The chapter reviews some general and specific arguments and approaches to, the limited nature of democracy in the Middle East and North Africa. For many observers, the emergence of militant Islamicist movements in the Middle East and North Africa has confirmed that Islam is the major obstacle and challenge to democratization. Lijphart has proposed the consociational/consensual model of democracy as one which fits societies with significant social cleavages, phenomena common to many Middle Eastern societies. Political inequality in rich states has been as much a motor of democratic demands as inequalities in income and wealth. The current phase of political liberalization provides a testing ground for the compatibility of particular Islamic movements with a process of political liberalization. In the case of Jordan, a conservative king has sought to buttress his position by devolving on political parties a share in the responsibility for a profound economic crisis and stringent austerity measures.