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BartoszWróblewski
couldalsobementionedhere,butoneshouldnotforgetaboutthecivilwar
of1975-1991,orthecountry’spartialdominationbypartisanmilitia,such
asHezbollah.Thus,Arabrepublicanismhasledtoanear-universalcrisisof
statestructuresandastrengtheningofrepressivedictatorships.
Thingsaredifferentincountrieswiththemonarchicsystemof
governance.Atthetimeofthe2011revolutions,demonstrationsand
upheavalshitmonarchies,too—Morocco,SaudiArabia,Jordan,Omanand
Bahrain—butthedevelopmentstheretookquiteadifferentcoursefromthe
dramaticbreakdownoftheoldorderinArabrepublics.Therewasnochange
ofpowerinmonarchies,withprotestssubsidingfairlyquickly—aresultof
eitherrepression(asinSaudiArabia)orcompromisesbytheauthorities
(suchasinMoroccoandJordan).Theabsenceofrevolutionarytensionsin
monarchiesisstriking.Theprotestsusuallyengagedonlycertaingroupsof
thepopulation,andweregeographicallyisolated.Theonlyexceptionwas
Bahrain,thesceneofapopularrevolutionthatwassuppressedonlyby
aforeign(SaudiArabian)militaryintervention,butthemassproteststhere
wereShiiteactionsagainsttherulingSunniminority.Unlikemanyrepublics
intheregion,theArabmonarchiesmanagedtomaintainpoliticalstability.
Westernpoliticalscientists,though,finditverydifficulttointerpretthe
processesgoingonintheregion—andnotonlybecausethesearefarfrom
completion.CognitivedissonancehasbeengrowinginEuropeandtheU.S.
becausethedevelopmentsintheArabworldcontradictmanyestablished
andseeminglyobjectiveopinions.Sufficeittonotethat,accordingtostrict
Europeandefinitions,Arabmonarchiesarestatesinwhichthepeopledo
nothavesovereignty.Indescribingthem,comparisonsshouldratherbe
madetopre-1789Europeankingdoms,nottothoseofthepresentday.The
ideaofpopularsovereigntywasembracedbyArabrepublicsbut,contrary
towhattheWesternobserverwouldexpect,itfailedtosupersedeearlier
conceptsjustifyingthesupremacyofrulersovertheruled.Worsethanthat,
themodernisingArabrepublicseitherendedupincatastropheordrewto
apoliticalstandstill.Monarchies,ontheotherhand,managedtoavoidthese
extremes.Leavingasidetheembarrassingquestionofdemocracy,they
certainlydemonstratedurability,politicalstabilityand—generally—greater
economicdynamismthanisthecasewiththerepublics(andthisalsoholds
fortheno-oilstates,MoroccoandJordan).1
1
A.Sylwestrzak,Historiadoktrynpolitycznychiprawnych,WoltersKluwer,2006,
pp.213-218.
8
ThePolishQuarterlyofInternationalAffairs,2016,no.4
