Minorities and authoritarianism in the Middle East: A case study of Muslim Alawites in Syria

Why are some minorities in the Middle East less inclined to support democratization or political liberalization efforts? Here, I examine if and how minorities differ in their support for democratization from the majority groups in the Middle East. I will analyze why some minorities prefer to support authoritarian regimes over supporting democratization. I examine how the religion of a minority affects its preference for regime type. I will also examine how historical backgrounds and international patronage affects those preferences. I will identify two historical moments in the Middle East that played a role in shaping those preferences: the post-World War One mandate period moving into the post-independence period, and the Arab Spring. Based on a Single Case Study of Muslim Alawites in Syria, I will argue that the French Mandate period played a major role in enticing some minorities in the Middle East, in this case the Alawites in Syria, to support authoritarian regimes. My research will first analyze the post-WWI colonial period and the effects of the mandate policies on minorities, then move to the post-independence period and build a correlation between those policies and the support of minorities for authoritarianism in Syria all the way to the Arab Spring period