US and Middle East have the same problem

That problem being exclusive majority governments which refuse to work with the "minority" groups in their population. The governance of the domestic US has been completely paralyzed to the point of self destructive policies like the sequester because one ruling party would rather get nothing done than compromise with the other ruling party. This is no different than countries in the Middle East, like Iraq, Syria or Saudi Arabia where you have a Sunni or Shiite government who refuse to be inclusive of the other faction, at which point the left out faction starts blowing things. Egypt was alot like the US where the ruling party felt that the election gave it a mandate to exclude the opinions of everyone else. The Brotherhood and Republican Congress seems to feel like they were voted a crown, not a gavel. When we talk about supporting democracy, we are really talking about establishing majority rule since nothing about our "democratic system" really supports minority rights after the vote has been cast. To me..the solution seems to be decentralization of government, where you have established groups with equal voting power, which each represent a cultural group in the country. The more you spread out the choice, the less explosive the disagreements will be. When you force the population to choose between the lesser of two evils you are setting up a contest and encouraging conflict and confrontation.