Political Stability in Authoritarian Regimes: Lessons from the Arab Uprisings

History abounds with instances in which Westerncountries have pursued policies supportingauthoritarian regimes, while lukewarmly investing indemocracy promotion. The EU and US’s attitudesvis-à-vis the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA)region has followed this pattern. By looking atpolitical discourse and practice, this paper exploresthe conceptual loopholes into which Western policymakershave often fallen when choosing stabilityover democracy in the southern Mediterraneanregion. This paper focuses on US and EU attitudestowards MENA countries before and after the start ofthe Arab Spring with the goal of reappraisingmainstream approaches to political stability amongstboth governmental and non-governmental actors.