Past Read: Democracy Without Democrats? The Renewal of Politics in the Muslim World

Salamé, Ghassan, ed. Democracy Without Democrats? The Renewal of Politics in the Muslim World. (New York: I.B. Taurus, 1996)
 _____
 
Ghassan Salamé’s edited volume, Democracy Without Democrats? The Renewal of Politics in the Muslim World (1996) is significant for both its subject matter – the paucity of functioning democracies in the Arab world and its possible relationship to Islam – and because of the sheer number of impressive scholars who contributed to it, including Salamé, Aziz Al-Azmeh, Roger Owen, Gudrun Krämer, Olivier Roy, and more. It is, moreover, of renewed interest given the current popular democratic –and not specifically Muslim - revolutionary climate of the Middle East and North Africa.

Part one presents six hypotheses. First John Waterbury explores whether or not there can be a “democracy without democrats,” examining the potential for regional political liberalization, and arguing that it is necessary to include political Islam in the equation. Chapter two, by Jean Leca, situates Arab countries alongside other democratizing regions, cautioning that one must not assume that democratization is always the best solution for every people; indigenous movements must be allowed to develop authentically and in keeping with local customs and mores. In Chapter three, Salamé looks at democracy as an “instrument of civil peace” in Lebanon and Kuwait, arguing that democracy has functioned in those states because hegemonic groups could not openly establish dominant positions. Instead, power-sharing served as the only viable option. Aziz al-Azmeh argues in chapter four, “Populism Contra Democracy,” that “Arab democratic discourse” is simply a buzzword used by contesting elites in their attempts to shore up political hegemony, and not an accurate descriptor of genuine dialogic exchange. Even more damning, Islamist groups have, according to al-Azmeh, “pathologized” democratization, leading to widespread resistance. In chapter five, GCC expert Giacomo Luciani explains the disincentives to democracy in the rentier states. Perhaps most intriguingly given the Arab Spring, in chapter six, Phillip Fargue presents a series of demographic statistics, emphasizing the rise in education among both men and women across the Arab world, and the dramatic influx of first-time job seekers expected to hit the market after 2006. Though as a whole this group was deeply pessimistic about democratic prospects, the need for social change was universally acknowledged. Part Two moves on to specific regional case studies, including Tunisia, Algeria, Egypt, and Syria.

What is striking about this volume is the pessimism that weaves through the different studies; it seems unlikely that such a volume would have been published at any time in the last decade. Nevertheless, it is both a good expression of the scholarly climate of the time - and of early attempts by political scientists to move past the constantly trumpeted “Middle East exceptionalism” - as well as a good source of commentary from Salamé and al-Azmeh, whose contributions still ring true. It is moreover a good representation of the far-flung approaches taken by political scientists toward the subject of democratization in the Middle East; theoretically, these essays do not cohere together well.