The Palestinian Regime: A Partial Democracy

This text examines the new political order that emerged in the West Bank and Gaza after the establishment of the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) in 1994. It demonstrates that two political systems exist in the West Bank and Gaza Strip: one which is active, undemocratic and dominant; and one which is passive, democratic and overshadowed by the first. As'ad Ghanem demonstrates how Yassir Arafat has created an authoritarian regime and how he controls this through the concentration of power, intimidation and bribery, after having shoved aside the forces that had shaped the emerging political order that had come into being before the establishment of the PNA. This order, which incorporated political pluralism, struggle, protest on behalf of change, and voluntary organisations that were the first sign of the appearance of a Palestinian civil society, functions as a weak shadow of Arafat's centralized regime.