Ideas of democracy and political liberalization have recently become central to political debate within and about the Middle East. The current focus on the merits of democratic practice in many areas of the world, coupled with the spread of economic liberalism, will inevitably, according to some accounts, bring about a measure of political pluralism. Against this, the persistence of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East, together with the fragility of experiments with democracy, have revived an old argument: are Islam and democracy essentially irreconcilable?
This text aims to bring together many of the best-known writers on Middle Eastern politics. Challenging the assumption that the Middle East is a unique case, they offer new frameworks within which to analyze the process of democratization.
Author(s): Ghassan Salamé
Publisher: I.B. Tauris Publishers
Year: 1994
Language: English
Pages: 352
Tags: Democracy, Islam, Middle East, Muslim, Politics, International Relations, Religion, Secularism
Democracy without democrats? The potential for political liberalization in the Middle East / John Waterbury
Democratization in the Arab world: uncertainty, vulnerability and legitimacy: a tentative conceptualization and some hypotheses / Jean Leca
Demographic explosion or social upheaval? / Philippe Fargues
Introduction: where are the democrats? / Ghassan Salamé
Patronage and solidarity groups: survival or reformation? / Olivier Roy
Populism contra democracy: recent democratist discourse in the Arab world / Aziz Al-Azmeh
Republican trajectories in Iran and Turkey: a Tocquevillian reading / Jean-François Bayart
Small is pluralistic: democracy as an instrument of civil peace / Ghassan Salamé
Socio-economic change and political implications: the Maghreb / Abdelbaki Hermassi
Socio-economic change and political mobilization: the case of Egypt / Roger Owen
The integration of the integrists: a comparative study of Egypt, Jordan and Tunesia / Gudrun Krämer
The oil rent, the fiscal crisis of the state and democratization / Giacomo Luciani
The private sector, economic liberalization, and the prospects of democratization: the case of Syria and some other Arab countries / Volker Perthes
