Competitive Authoritarianism and the Evolution of Political Legitimacy in Middle Eastern Systems

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.

2 PhD student in Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.

Abstract

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, proponents of liberal democracy, drawing upon Francis Fukuyama's article "The End of History," defined liberal democracy as the most complete political system—a system they believed could serve as a model for governance in many countries worldwide. However, this optimism gradually gave way to pessimistic realities in global politics, and ethnic tensions, identity conflicts, racial wars, developments related to September 11th, the emergence of fundamentalism and terrorism, the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq, the Syrian crisis and the rise of ISIS, the advent of authoritarianism, the expansion of far-right extremism in the West, and the emergence of Trumpism became significant challenges confronting contemporary liberal democracies. These challenges demonstrated how authoritarianism is gradually emerging in opposition to liberal democracy. Various countries worldwide have provided fertile ground for the emergence of authoritarianism and have manifested new forms of "political legitimacy. "In this regard, the present article, within the theoretical framework of the concept of "competitive authoritarianism," seeks to analyze the process of authoritarianism's emergence in today's world while examining concrete examples of it in some Middle Eastern countries. The question is: how have Middle Eastern politicians in countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, through new governance models, created conditions for transformation in the traditional concept of political legitimacy? In response, the hypothesis is proposed that dominant politicians in these countries, based on authoritarian governance models and through a complex combination of "electoral," "technocratic," "nationalist," and "digital" mechanisms, have been able to provide conditions for transformation in the classical concept of political legitimacy. To examine such an issue, a library method has been used for gathering necessary information, and a descriptive-analytical method has been employed for analyzing the discussions

Keywords

References

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Mesopotamian Political Studies
Volume 4, Issue 3 - Serial Number 12
December 2025
Pages 493-527

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History

  • Receive Date: 06 September 2025
  • Revise Date: 29 September 2025
  • Accept Date: 21 November 2025

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