Postwar Middle Eastern republics often masked continued dynastic dominance

Evidence

To many Americans it must have seemed incongruous, if not uncongenial, that their government should support a king against an elected parliament, but the out­ ward forms of Middle Eastern political life should not mislead us into equating them with their Western originals. In the Middle Eastern poker game there is nothing inconsistent in a good republican’s playing a hand of three kings—and hoping that no one else will play the aces. — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1194 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Post-1945 Middle East great-power succession changed players but not the script — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1178; Post-Cold-War superpowers neither could nor would keep imperial rule in the Middle East — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1729; Middle Eastern democratic forms mask the region’s real monarchical politics — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans: Interpreting…, 1194 (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Middle Eastern democratic forms mask the region’s real monarchical politics #corroborates (0.95) — Bernard Lewis, From Babel to Dragomans, 1194