The Search for Arab Democracy: Discourses and Counter-Discourses - Softcover

Sadiki, Senior Lecturer In Middle East Politics Larbi

Softcover

ISBN 10: 023112581X ISBN 13: 9780231125819

Publisher: Columbia University Press, 2004

Synopsis

How to be a "democrat" and a "Muslim" at the same time is the subject of ongoing contests. This book maps out the variety of voices contesting "Islam" and "democracy" in the Arab world, insisting that neither category can be taken as unitary or fixed.

In the Arab Middle East, the contest is over "which", "whose", and "how much" democracy takes place within an existing contest over "which", "whose", and "how much" Islam must be given pre-eminence in the political and cultural sphere. There is a "Democracy" and there are "democracies." There is an "Islam" and there are "islams."

Larbi Sadiki deploys the conceptual tools of contemporary Western political philosophy and theory to articulate and defend some provocative theses. The book challenges Eurocentric conceptions of democracy that all-too-frequently display a lack of concern for specificity and context; analyzes and interrogates Orientalist and Occidentalist discourses on democracy; and considers some of the justifications for democracy in the global arena, giving space for self-representation by women and Islamists, among others. Using interviews with Muslims from every social and economic stratum, the book shows how Arabs themselves understand, imagine, and view democracy.

About this title

About the Author

Larbi Sadiki is lecturer in Middle East politics at the University of Exeter, England.

Edition details

• Publisher: Columbia University Press
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 023112581X
• ISBN 13: 9780231125819
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 457