CIAO DATE: 10/05

Evaluating Palestinian Reform

Abstract

IN PALESTINE, CITIZENS HAVE RIGHTS OF FREE SPEECH and free assembly. The most independent judiciary in the Arab world adjudicates their disputes. Palestinians select their leaders freely in competitive elections overseen by an independent electoral commission. A representative assembly monitors the executive, granting and withholding confidence from ministers and reviewing the state budget in detailed public discussions. Elected councils manage local governments that are fiscally autonomous of the center.

Palestine is, in short, a model liberal democracy. Its most significant flaw is that it does not exist. This is true in two senses. First, Palestinians on the West Bank and Gaza are governed in many of their internal affairs by the Palestinian Authority (PA), an uncertain political hybrid that falls far short of sovereignty. This situation creates enormous obstacles that are well knownmdash;Palestine is still a political entity struggling to come into existence in the midst of one of the world's most intractable national conflicts. And, second, domestic problems as well as international obstacles have blocked the emergence of a liberal, democratic Palestine. Though widely acknowledged, these domestic obstacles are less well understood. Palestine on paper shows the Arab world a different kind of politics, one that avoids the authoritarian, unaccountable, and highly centralized practices prevailing in the region, but it has failed to build the institutions to give this politics full substance.

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