 As of 2008, Comoros and Mauritania were considered by US-based organization Freedom House as the only real “electoral democracies” of the Arab World.Sultanates in the late nineteenth century used a cyclic age system and hierarchical lineage membership to provide the foundation for participation in the political process.In the capital, "the sultan was assisted by his ministers and by a madjelis, an advisory council composed of elders, whom he consulted regularly".