Democracy, "Arab exceptionalism," and social science

Abstract

This article deals with a cross-national measurement methodology of democracy as it is applied to Muslim and Arab nations by Freedom House, a major research organization. The results of Freedom House's studies show that Muslim and Arab states prove comparatively to be exceptional in being resistant to democracy. This article briefly examines measurement criteria then highlights, the finding that the exceptionalism thesis propagated by the Freedom House project is the product of serious discrepancies in the measurement application.