Arab Parties: Their Harm Exceeds Their Benefit

Over a century, it has been established that since some Arab countries attempted to emulate Western democracies and adopt party pluralism, the majority of these parties have fragmented the populace and burdened them with side battles against the authority and amongst themselves, sowing discord and dividing the people along regional, ethnic, religious, and sectarian lines. They have become tools in the hands of regimes that use and exploit the slogans of democracy and party pluralism to entrench despotism under a democratic façade.

All this raises the question of the feasibility of the existing parties and whether their absence from the scene would negatively impact political life?

What would happen in Arab countries if political parties disappeared?

In Palestine, where there is no law for parties, some of these parties operate vigorously based on their original principles from the time of the revolution, while others emerged with the establishment of authority aiming to reach it, and others operate with a non-national reference. The absence of these parties would be in favor of the people and the national cause; as the parties have worked to divide and fragment the population into Islamic, national, and international factions, given that the division was not popular but rather linked to the parties and their ideologies. While previously there were parties and resistance factions competing in resisting the occupation and had an important role in mobilization and political awareness, today most of them are fighting over power and gaining benefits for the party from foreign funding sources or from taxes at the expense of the people, creating a corrupt class detached from the masses and their concerns. Some have even turned into mercenary groups working for external interests. Thus, by ending the party phenomenon, a corrupt and failed political class will be eliminated, and the people will directly confront the occupation, leading to the renewal of the national movement and the national project, replenishing them with new and young elements.

On an Arab level, the end of the party phenomenon in its current form will expose the "false democracy" of regimes that claimed to be democratic, asserting the existence of elections that lead to power transfer, while everyone knows that these elections are rigged. Even if there is no rigging, those who are elected do not actually govern; the rule and authority lie elsewhere, unrelated to the parties; the scene is controlled by a "deep state" whose keys are held in the presidential or royal palace.

We do not exaggerate when we say that there are three types of governing systems in the Arab world, all of which are authoritarian to varying degrees:

First: Authoritarian rule (revolutionary and progressist)

Second: Authoritarian rule (Islamic)

Third: Authoritarian rule under a liberal democratic façade (guided democracy)