Governance and Economic Growth in the Arab Region

Abstract

The explanations for the failure of the Arab regimes to provide the kind of sound governance for their people that can deliver prosperity is undoubtedly a quite complex and nested issue. However, the most significant reasons have tended to be associated or rooted in the political legacy of dictatorship. This chapter attempts to contribute to the existing literature in three ways. First, it evaluates the governance system in Arab states not only from general view as most of the previous research but also from each aspect of institutions. Second, a comparative assessment is conducted between the Arab region to other developed and developing regions, and within the region itself to highlight the similarities and differences among the region's countries. Third, an examination is made of particular relationships concerning Arab governance, which has raised interesting issues in recent research.