The so-called Arab Spring shows that the main constraint on the spread of democracy is power, not culture

Please discuss the question using the countries Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria and Yemen mostly. use the books i have referenced below, you will find a lot of information in the readings and the two websites i have provided. Word count 1350 – 1650 words.

Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), with a focus on the Arab Spring
Lectures
Background to the Arab Spring
Processes of the Arab Spring
The so-called Arab Spring shows that the main constraint on the spread of democracy is power, not culture. Discuss.
Introductory Readings
Diamond, Larry, Why Are there No Arab Democracies?, Journal of Democracy vol. 21, no. 1 (January 2010), pp. 93104.
Further Readings on Conditions for Democracy in the Middle East
Bellin, Eva (2004). The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Exceptionalism in Comparative Perspective. Comparative Politics vol. 36, no. 2 (January), pp. 13957.
Huntington, Samuel P. (1993). The Clash of Civilizations? Foreign Affairs vol. 72, no. 2 (summer), 2249.
Inglehart, Ronald, and Pippa Norris (2003). The True Clash of Civilizations. Foreign Policy, no. 135 (MarchApril), pp. 6270.
Tessler, Mark, Amaney Jamal, and Michael Robbins (2012). New Findings on Arabs and Democracy. Journal of Democracy vol. 23, no. 4 (October), pp. 89103.
Voll, John O., and John L. Esposito (1994). Islams Democratic Essence. Middle East Quarterly vol. 1, no. 3 (September).
Further Readings on the Arab Spring and Its Aftermath
Berman, Sheri (2013). The Promise of the Arab Spring: In Political Development, No Gain without Pain, Foreign Affairs vol. 92, no. 1 (January/February), pp. 6474.
Puddington, Arch (2013). Breakthroughs in the Balance. Journal of Democracy vol. 24, no. 2 (April), pp. 4661.
Roy, Olivier (2012). The Transformation of the Arab World, Journal of Democracy vol. 23, no. 3 (July), pp. 518.
o See also the response to this article by Hillel Fradkin and Olivier Roys reply, both in Journal of Democracy 24, no. 1 (January 2013), pp. 513 and 1419.
Stepan, Alfred, and Juan J. Linz (2013). Democratization Theory and the Arab Spring, Journal of Democracy 24, no. 2 (April), 1530.
For up-to-date and intelligent comment on political developments, see the website of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace: http://www.carnegieendowment.org/.
For up-to-date reports on electoral processes and post-election developments, particularly in Egypt, Libya, and Tunisia, see the Election Reports section of the website of the Carter Center: http://www.cartercenter.org/news/publications/election_reports.html.