Demography and Democracy

Elhum Haghighat is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Lehman College, and Professor at the Middle East and Middle Eastern American Center at The Graduate Center, both at The City University of New York. She is the author of Women in the Middle East and North Africa: Change and Continuity (2012).

• Part I. Introduction and Fundamentals: Introduction; 1. Development, piety, elements of democracy and the MENA region; Part II. Global and MENA Demographic Transitions: 2. Demographic transition in the MENA and the world; Part III. Contemporary Dynamics and Dimensions in the MENA: 3. The impact of population movement and migration, oil and labor resources in the MENA region (focus on GCC countries); 4. Change and transition in the politics of gender and sexuality in the MENA; Part IV. Case Studies and Conclusion: 5. Contemporary dynamics and dimensions of politics and society in Yemen, Qatar, Tunisia and Iran; 6. Conclusion.

'Demography and Democracy asks what Middle Eastern demographic shifts portend for the region's democracy and political development. Haghighat's argument for restrained optimism regarding such trends is both counter-intuitive and well-substantiated in the quantitative supporting data that she impressively marshals. Any serious scholarship regarding Middle Eastern politics must contend with her provocative argument that urbanization, the rise of knowledge industries, lower fertility rates, higher literacy rates, and more women in the workforce will likely have a dividend: greater democratic and rights-friendly development in the region.' Anthony Tirado Chase, Occidental College, California