Going back to the early beginnings of democracy in Jordan in the [1950s], theJordanian people, particularly the youth and the activist forces, were very enthusiastic aboutpolitical parties, despite the fact that the level of political awareness then was not as advanced asit is now. Conditions on the domestic, Pan-Arab, and international levels were encouraging.Pan-Arabism was on the rise. There were goals for the Arabs to achieve, and there was aconsensus that it was feasible to achieve those goals. Political parties at that time had a vastpopular base. They were large and effective due to the large-scale popular participation in theseparties. The situation at present is the opposite. When political parties were born again, theylooked as if they were parties in the stage of formation.