This is an era of democratic progress. In recent decades, racist governments in Southern Africa, military regimes in Latin America and communist administrations around the globe have largely given way to more representative forms of government. The roots of Africa's new democracies may be shallow, but they grow with each passing election. The transition from authoritarian rule to democratic government is a process rather than an event, but most countries are moving along that trajectory in the right direction. In the most important energy exporting region of the world, the Middle East and North Africa, the Arab Spring has brought radical change to Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen, and may well do the same in Syria. The long-term outlook for all five countries is uncertain, but the pressures that culminated in their respective revolutions are present across the region; a lack of political representation, limited economic opportunities, and corruption by a narrow political elite. These all add up to a heady revolutionary mix.
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