SINCE the wave of Arab uprisings started last year, the theory of “Arab exceptionalism” promoted by many Western governments to justify supporting dictatorships has looked a lot weaker. There was virtually no demand for democracy in rich, pro-Western or strategically valuable Arab countries, it was once breezily argued. Now the buzz phrase is “monarchical exceptionalism”. After all, the Arab world’s eight monarchies, all but two of them in the Gulf region, seem plainly a lot better at fending off popular pressure for democracy than the republics. That, at any rate, has been the argument.

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