Structured Response #3

The democratization process in America was a lengthy one. While we have, technically, been a democracy since our founding, in practice that was not the case. From women not having the right to vote, to slavery being widely practice and segregation being enforced up to the 1960s we, as a country, like to forget that we were not such a true democracy a mere 50 years ago. This after more than 150 years championing democracy and our own brand of it. Social movements have really influenced the democratization process in America. They helped pave the way for the abolition of slavery, they introduced women's suffrage but perhaps the most important social movement in the United States in the past century was the movement started by Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X. Both using completely different means helped the United State become more democratic by fully legally embracing the United State's black population and ending the racist policy of segregation making us a more open society and therefore aiding the democratization process. Through these social movements we have become a more open society that has had its freedoms reinforced and asserted for the entirety of its population unlike what was the case previously.
The lesson for the countries of the MENA region can be much the same. However the way in which these social movements operate must be different because the set of ideals that the countries in the MENA share are different that what the USA hold and held. The US started as more democratic and therefore were less inclined to respond to these protests with violence. While not all countries in the region are like Syria who shoot their own citizens they may not grant licenses to protest in the first place making social movements harder but not impossible to operate. Social Movements in the MENA country will have to operate with baby steps, just as social movements in the US operated in order to be effective. The process may take as much as a 100 years although perhaps less as they have templates among their more democratized neighbors to emulate and base themselves on so that they can avoid the mistakes made by their counterparts. All in all, the role of social movements in the MENA region should be to inform the people from the bottom up, the government may be less likely to encourage such movements especially in more conservative countries in the region but if the citizens at the bottom support the movements then action and progress by these movements can be made and we may see democratization efforts in the region soar. The movements should advocate principally for more freedoms to be granted, to every member of the country's population whether they be gay, of a different color or of a different gender, equal freedoms for every one should be the role of these social movements in the democratization process of the MENA countries.