Since the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 much has been said and written about spreading democracy in the Middle East. U.S. President George W. Bush thought that democracy would somehow come about automatically after the fall of Saddam, almost by reverse osmosis. It would have helped the president and his team to have done a track history check of the turnover of leaders in the region.

The League of Arab States, or informally known as the Arab League, is comprised of 21 countries and Palestine, which the League recognized as a state. Of the 22 members, hardly one can truly claim to practice democracy as it is understood by the Western concept.

Here's a quick apercu: since its independence from France in 1962 Algeria has known six presidents, two of whom have served for 13 years, and one who served for a one-year interim period.

Eight of the 22 members of the Arab League – Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates have hereditary rulers; monarchy's where the power passes from father to son, or brother to brother. Other countries in the Arab League practice that same principle. But that's another matter altogether.

Several of the member countries have experienced military coups, such as the Comoros in the Indian Ocean, or Somalia, which has had about 17 presidents since 1960 – many living in exile. Mauritania has had three presidents since 1960 plus a slew of military governments. As has the Sudan, which has also been plagued by almost continuous civil wars mixed with ethnic cleansing.

Others have been somewhat more stable. However, when one mentions a stable government in the Middle East it is hard not to associate the term with autocracy. Djibouti has had two presidents since independence in 1977; Egypt three since 1952; Iraq four from 1966 until the fall of Saddam in 2003. Tunisia two since 1957.

Lebanon, often touted as the most democratic Arab country, with the closest thing to an open parliamentary system – until recently – has elected 11 presidents since independence in 1943, not including two acting presidents and one president-elect who was assassinated before taking office. And now the country has been without a president since November 2007.

Libya has had a single ruler since 1969 when the current leader abolished the monarchy and established a "Jamahiriya," a virtually untranslatable word given that it is composed of two Arabic words: jamahir (the people) and joumhouriya (republic), but could be loosely said to mean "rule by the people."

Syria went from one extreme to the other, experiencing coups and counter-coups and in the process changing some 20 presidents between 1943 and 1971. Then in the last 37 years, settling for two presidents: a father, who passed the reins of power to his son.

Perhaps somewhat ironically the one place where elections were held without U.S. military intervention and that were deemed fair by international observers, was the one member of the League which is not truly a recognized country – Palestine – an action which was rejected by the international community.

Perhaps one simple guideline to judging a democracy is by the number of living former presidents a country still has. You'd be hard pressed finding more than one or two (in Lebanon). For the sake of comparison since 1961 the United States has elected nine presidents; some have served two terms.

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