The failure of democracy in Yemen: An analysis of external dimension

• Main Author: Fakirah, Galal Ibrahim
• Format: Conference or Workshop Item
• Language: English
• Published: 2015
• Subjects: HD28 Management. Industrial Management
• Online Access: http://repo.uum.edu.my/23941/1/RC31.pdf; http://repo.uum.edu.my/23941/

The revolution of North Yemen to step down the Imam Traditional Regime in 1962, and the independent of South Yemen from the British colony in 1967, both never produced systematic process for democracy building in their societies. The declaration of two parts Unification in 1990 represented a new shifting in the evolution of contemporary Yemen at the level of democracy building process.The newly established country adopted democracy and political pluralism, a formula that was widely adopted in many developing countries with the collapse of the Soviet Union. The constitution of The Republic of Yemen, which was amended in 1994 stated that political pluralism and multi – parties system is an essential element in the political regime. Within two decades (1990 – 2010) Yemen has witnessed many activities and programs that were considered to be steps in the process of democracy building. The elections at the parliamentary, presidential, and local levels were the explicit expression of such activities and programs. Within the events of the political crisis, that started to appear in 2006, and the failure of dialogue between the regime and the political opposition in 2010, and blow of Arab Spring winds to Yemen in the beginning of 2011, it appears clearly that democracy building strongly faced serious challenges and closing doors.Although the Gulf Cooperation Council's Initiative in Nov.2011 gave some hopes to find some outlets, and suggested what we call the transition period of two years in order to reach a presidential and parliamentary elections, the invasion of the Yemeni Capital in Sep. 2014 by Houthis militias, the cover allied between former president Salah and the Houthis militias, and the outbreak of armed extension by this militias to control the other govern orates all over the country, and hence the announcement of Zero Time to launch the Decisive Storm by the allied forces leaded by Saudi Arabia in March, 2015 to bring back the legitimate president Hadi to power, all these events stopped the process of democracy building and pushed this process to the Grand Failure Station. Within this 25 – year duration, we witnessed a very influential role of the external factors, the role exerted by the international actors such as the USA, the EU, and the UN. This paper address such influence, and focuses on the roles of the external actors at two levels: the first is the regional and superpowers, the second is the regional and international organizations.