In 2004, I took a course entitled “Authoritarianism in the Middle East” as part of my graduate school program at Georgetown University. Much of the course is a blur now more than a decade after finishing graduate school. But one of the main things I learned was how a vast, inefficient, and all-encompassing role of the state in the Arab world had controlled the lives of the people for too long and how difficult it would be to get rid of the rigidly authoritarian paternalistic regimes that have brought nothing but misery to the masses. The course analyzed the longevity of Arab authoritarian regimes, most of which were still in power in my graduate school years.
Book Cover
Seven years later, the Arab Spring felled a number of longtime dictatorships within a space of two years. At last, there was a big surge of hope for long-lasting reforms and greater freedoms in the region. But the noble aspirations of the Arab Spring were replaced with either a new dictatorship (Egypt), the strengthening of an old dictatorship (Bahrain), and protracted civil wars (Libya, Syria, and Yemen) that killed and displaced millions of innocent people. Getting rid of dictatorships in the Middle East has become as hard as negotiating peace between the Sunnis and the Shi’a.
What I hope is that current graduate students studying authoritarianism in the Middle East will read Alaa al Aswany’s remarkable new book entitled The Dictatorship Syndrome, which dissects the psychology, anatomy, and sociology of dictatorships. The book walks the reader through a dictatorship’s sources of power and the reasons why dictators remain entrenched.
While many good books have been written on the subjects of dictatorships and authoritarianism, Al Aswany’s genius is that he understands and presents the role of all the elements that make up a dictatorship, from the role of the megalomaniac ruler to the role of an ordinary citizen, delivering his assessment in easy and accessible language.
Once a dictatorship is established, the dictatorship syndrome permeates so deeply into the societal fabric that anyone who speaks up against the regime is seen as a traitor both by the dictator and by seemingly normal, ordinary (or as al Aswany calls them) “good citizens” of the dictatorship.
The book is not only an indictment of the obvious—dictators; the most damning parts are about how common citizens consciously and willingly trade in their independent and critical thinking, moral and ethical values, and ability to see right from wrong for unconditional support of dictators in their countries. Once a dictatorship is established, the dictatorship syndrome permeates so deeply into the societal fabric that anyone who speaks up against the regime is seen as a traitor both by the dictator and by seemingly normal, ordinary (or as al Aswany calls them) “good citizens” of the dictatorship. Such “good citizens” become not only the tools of the regimes but also purveyors of crazy conspiracy theories and fascist ideologies as well as vulnerable recruits of extremist and terrorist groups.
An example of how such “good citizens” of dictatorship aspire to “fulfil their prophecy that cowardly insularity is the best plan of action” at the expense of individuals who fight for freedom and dignity is the arrest of a 2011 Egyptian protester, who had torn up a piece of paper with a list of names of the leaders of the revolution in a cafe before he was taken to a police station was followed by a random cafe patron eagerly taking the pieces of the torn list to the police. A “good citizen” and a dictator become two sides of the same coin.
Al Aswany, a dentist by training in addition to being one of the most prominent intellectuals of Egypt and an outspoken critic of the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, has properly diagnosed the syndrome of dictatorships, which are only as strong as their populations’ willingness to give their unlimited support to a brutal strongman. It is a perverse social contract of sorts, mainly based on paralyzing fear, hypocrisy, cynicism, and disbelief in change. Stability under a brutal dictatorship ends up mattering more to “good citizens” than any meaningful change that could free them and improve their lives.
An interesting insight on the psychology of dictatorships is how an average Egyptian has an obsessive devotion to football not only because it is enjoyable, but also because its rules are just and transparent. It is a parallel universe where Egyptians enjoy the game’s fairness, which is often completely denied in their every-day lives. Al Aswany blames ordinary individuals and entire societies for enabling and promoting dictatorships.
“The emergence of the good citizens is one of the worst symptoms of dictatorship, and they are the primary culprits of a dictator’s longevity in power.”
He writes: “The emergence of the good citizens is one of the worst symptoms of dictatorship, and they are the primary culprits of a dictator’s longevity in power.”
Yet, the “good citizens” are not necessarily unintelligent or unaware of the consequences of their actions. Most importantly, they do know that their actions are morally wrong. Members of the intelligentsia, media, and pop culture also become useful tools of dictators to help glorify them, advance their agenda, turn a blind eye to their horrific crimes and corruption, and even become perpetrators of such crimes themselves. That is the admission price to a stable and normal life inside a dictatorship for most people.
The book is also a confession of al Aswany’s personal and familial agony over the fate of his country, Egypt, where he did not sit by idly during the 2011 revolution, but stood together with other fellow idealists in the middle of Tahrir Square yearning for long-awaited political change. He was a founding member of Kefaya (also known as the Egyptian Movement for Change), a grassroots political movement that garnered support throughout Egypt to protest against President Mubarak, political corruption, and economic stagnation.
This book is a warning that we are all capable of becoming enablers and cowardly supporters of dictators, even if the latter are widely despised for their oppression, brutality, lies, corruption, ineptitude, narcissism, megalomania, and utter insanity.
This book is a warning that we are all capable of becoming enablers and cowardly supporters of dictators, even if the latter are widely despised for their oppression, brutality, lies, corruption, ineptitude, narcissism, megalomania, and utter insanity. His detailed study of the anatomy of dictatorships can help us see more clearly what might be wrong with any repressive regime around the world, not just Middle Eastern autocracies. Indeed, so many components of his book speak loudly for what I saw in countries in Central Asia and Russia.
Preconditions for authoritarianism now exist in the U.S. as the notions of the rule of law, transparency, strong governmental institutions, equal power sharing between various branches of government, and most importantly, the willingness and ability of elected officials to fulfill their duties for the good of the country, and not for the narrow interests of any political party, are increasingly putting the strength of American democracy to the test.
Al Aswany’s book inevitably made me look at the current political situation in the United States. It would not be an overstatement to say that preconditions for authoritarianism now exist in the U.S. as the notions of the rule of law, transparency, strong governmental institutions, equal power sharing between various branches of government, and most importantly, the willingness and ability of elected officials to fulfill their duties for the good of the country, and not for the narrow interests of any political party, are increasingly putting the strength of American democracy to the test.
The book helps us scrutinize and better understand ourselves, as citizens and members of society, as much as it gives a sharp analytical insight into the complex elements that constitute dictatorships in the Middle East and what fate may await.
