Abstract
Abstract: Waves of Middle East protests have evoked some changes and long-lasting consequences, illustrating the ability and desire of democratization and the successful work of CSOs. Yet, it has also shown how rooted this is authoritarian tendencies.
These protests have a long history of political change followed by returning authoritarianism; dictators are trying to learn by holding a tighter grip over every aspects of political life. This paper explores these changes, giving a critical review of the EU and the US' assistance and aid during versus their dilemma of stability and security, specifically in Egypt and Turkey.
Next, it discusses the concept of elections in an authoritarian regime (Egypt) and a backsliding democracy (Turkey). The main question is whether, and if so to what extent, these environments have an effect on the concept of "free and fair" elections, whereby both cases are joined by similar authoritarian tendencies besides elections.