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Planting an olive tree: the state of reform in Jordan

17/04/2008 By Ana Echagüe

Jordan’s path to reform has been a carefully managed top-down process which has all the trappings of democracy while lacking substance. The balance of power is highly slanted towards the King, his Ministers and the unelected upper house while the elected lower house of parliament remains constrained in its powers and thus ineffective and lacking in credibility [More on Jordan's political system].

This has created grave disillusionment in Jordan as well as continued lack of oversight of legislation affecting civil society. The large number of civil society organisations masks the constraints that they operate under both in terms of the specific legal framework that regulates their activities and the broader democratic deficits related to the monarchy’s concentration of power, the lack of independence of the judiciary and the overly extensive and intrusive supervision they are subjected to.

Without further substantial reform, it remains to be seen whether Jordan’s status as a favourite of foreign donors and King Abdullah’s economic reform strategy will be sufficient to stave off rising dissent over the government’s lack of accountability to the electorate and disappointed hopes for further liberalisation of laws regulating civil society.

The question remains as to whether the regime is willing to continue with political reform or will use security as an excuse to stall or even backtrack on liberties achieved so far.

This Working Paper, the second in the series “Freedom of Association in the Middle East and North Africa” asks whether the regime is willing to continue with political reform or will use security as an excuse to stall or even backtrack on liberties achieved so far.


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Keywords

Civil society Democracy promotion Democratisation Dialogue Freedom of association Freedom of expression Governance Human rights Jordan Middle East and North Africa Political Reform Rule of Law

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Bio author: Ana Echagüe

Political reform in the Arab World. Yemen. Saudi Arabia. Democratisation. Gulf Cooperation Council.