Rules and Rights in the Middle East: Democracy, Law, and Society

by Ellis J. Goldberg, Resat Kasaba, Joel S. Migdal

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780295972879
Publisher:	University of Washington Press
Publication date:	11/01/1993
Series:	Jackson School Publications in International Studies
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.66(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

Table 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