The article explores the peculiarities of the process of political modernization in the Arab East. The author highlights the key problematic features of the specific situa- tion of modernity faced by contemporary Arab societies. She argues that in the condi- tions of the dominance of anti-modernist ideologies and ongoing formation of nations it is the state that plays the role of main institution that encourage modernization in the Arab East.
Keywords: political modernization, Arab countries, modernity, modern institutions, globalization, state, plural society, asabiyyat, pan-Arabism, anti-modernism, conservative revolution.