The proposition tested by the Arab uprisings was never really whether democracy’s moment had come in the Middle East. It was whether Arab dictators could continue to oppress, torture and kill their citizens to keep power.

These used to be the standard tactics for the region’s despots. But the case can be made that Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, Muammer Gaddafi of Libya, Hosni Mubarak in Egypt and now, perhaps, Bashar al-Assad in Syria all sealed their fate when they turned their forces against their own citizens.

Of course, progress has hardly been uniform and may be reversible. But the upheavals have at least created the opportunity to advance a new regional principle: that a leader who threatens his own people risks losing the legitimacy to govern.

Nowhere in the region has this proposition been more tested than in Syria. For as long as Mr Assad’s regime held on to power – using the same techniques his father employed – the lesson was that tyranny pays. Now that his hold appears finally to be slipping, the authority of that lesson is dealt a serious blow.

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