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In a series of essays by an international group of scholars and policy makers, this book provides the first sustained look at democracy and democratic movements in the Middle East. Moving beyond a concern with the growth of Islamicist movements and nationalist states, the authors probe the historical experiences of the last hundred years and the social conflict over the past decade centering on democratic structures and processes from North Africa to Turkey, Iraq, and Iran. The essays explore from theoretical, descriptive, and political perspectives questions of democracy, freedom, and rule of law in a region that is usually thought of as lacking in all these respects.
In recent years there has been a marked growth in the number and influences of social movements and organizations working to expand social, political, and civil rights, and to constrain the power of the states in many countries in the Middle East. At the same time many of the regimes in the area have introduced practices and institutions designed to make their rule more democratic in order to enhance their domestic and international standing and legitimacy, as well as to spur economic growth.
List of contents
Preface
Introduction
PART 1. OVERVIEW
The Practice of Electoral Democracy in the Arab East and North Africa: Some Lessons from Nearly a Century's Experience
PART 2. POWER AGAINST POWER
Populism and Democracy in Turkey, 1946-1961
Taxation without Representation: Authoritarianism and Economic Liberalization in Syria
State, Legitimacy, and Democratization in the Maghreb
Civil Society in Israel
PART 3. PRACTICAL POLITICS
Prospects and Difficulties of Democratization in the Middle East
American Policy toward Democratic Political Movements in the Middle East
Voices of Opposition: The International Committee for a Free Iraq
PART 4. THE SHADOW OF LAW
Public Confessions in the Islamic Republic of Iran
Obstacles to Democratization in Iraq: A Reading of Post-Revolutionary Iraqi History through the Gulf War
Private Goods, Public Wrongs, and Civil Society in Some Medieval Arab Theory and Practice
Index
Contributors
About the author
Ellis Goldberg, Resat Kasaba, and Joel S. Migdal
Summary
Looks at democracy and democratic movements in the Middle East. Moving beyond a concern with the growth of Islamicist movements and nationalist states, this book probes the historical experiences of the last hundred years and the social conflict centering on democratic structures and processes from North Africa to Turkey, Iraq, and Iran.
