1 The Contemporary Middle East

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Castellino Joshua ◽  
Cavanaugh Kathleen A
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
War On Terror ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
Contested Terrain ◽  
Politics And Law ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
Industrial Societies

This chapter tackles some of the most contested terrain. The argument that the Middle East shares narratives both endogenously and exogenously is explored as we set out the historical, social, and territorial formation of the region, focussing on events that have helped shape and reshape this space externally and internally. The movement from pre-industrial to post-industrial societies, and the varying responses to these socio-economic transformations at sub-state, state, and regional levels, has necessitated the interplay between religion and politics, religion and rights and the interface between politics and law. These myriad forces have generated not just one but multiple narratives at the state and civil society level. This chapter examines how conflicts since 1945 have shaped this region with particular reference to the Arab-Israeli conflicts and the post 9-11 ‘war on terror’.

FUNDAMENTALISM, BUREAUCRATIZATION, AND THE STATE'S CO-OPTATION OF RELIGION: A JORDANIAN CASE STUDY

2006 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-393 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard T. Antoun
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Half Century ◽  
The Past ◽  
Equal Duration ◽  
Past Half Century ◽  
Past Half

In the Middle East over the past half-century, three religious processes have grown together. One, the growth of fundamentalism, has received worldwide attention both by academics and journalists. The others, the bureaucratization of religion and the state co-optation of religion, of equal duration but no less importance, have received much less attention. The bureaucratization of religion focuses on the hierarchicalization of religious specialists and state co-optation of religion focuses on their neutralization as political opponents. Few commentators link the three processes. In Jordan, fundamentalism, the bureaucratization of religion (BOR), and state co-optation of religion (SCR) have become entwined sometimes in mutually supportive and sometimes in antagonistic relations. The following case study will describe and analyze the implications of this mutual entanglement for the relations of state and civil society and for the human beings simultaneously bureaucratized and “fundamentalized.”

Justice and Tyranny, Law and the State in the Middle East

1999 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 375-388
Author(s):  
Charles Lindholm
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Middle East ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Max Weber ◽  
Case Law ◽  
Authoritarian Regimes ◽  
The State ◽  
Civic Organizations ◽  
Rational Organization

In his influential work, Max Weber argued that the Middle East was fatally hampered in the development of a modern civil society by the existence of arbitrary Qadi justice, based on the personalized decisions of a judiciary reliant only on case law for precedent and lacking any form of rational organization. This individualistic judicial structure (or lack of structure) allowed authoritarian regimes to subvert the courts for their own purposes, destroying the possibility of the development of an autonomous citizenry; meanwhile, in Europe the evolution of a rationally codified legal system acted as a check on governmental tyranny and provided a space for the evolution of independent civic organizations.

Some Thoughts on the System of Tasks of the Local Autonomies Related to the Organisation of Personal Social Care

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
István Hoffman
Keyword(s):  
Social Services ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Social Care ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Short Description ◽  
The State ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post Industrial ◽  
Industrial Societies

In the modern post-industrial societies services are becoming the greatest part of the economy, and through the reallocating role of state – even after the millennium changes – the role of the services organised by the communities is exceptionally high. One of these services is the social care granted by the state and (its parts) the local governments. In my article I summarise the roles of local communities and local governments of some European and non-European states in the organisation of social care. The practical and theoretical legal terms of social assistance and personal social services are presented as well as the general characteristics of models (settlement or regional municipality based) of the organisation of the services. There is also a short description of general financing issues.

Religion and Politics

2017 ◽  
pp. 32-61
Author(s):  
Keren Sasson
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Revival ◽  
Shifting Boundaries ◽  
Political Success

This chapter pertains to exploring the political resurgence of religion, seeking to answer the pressing question of first, what accounts for religious revival in the age of globalization and second, what accounts for the political success or failure of religious movements, mostly in terms of exerting political influence on their domestic spheres and arenas. In order to answer these questions, this chapter delineates the conditions under which the needs and imperatives of both religious movements and the political establishment of the state are conflictual or reconcilable. To this end, the intriguing case of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood will be analyzed, illustrating the shifting boundaries of Islam from its traditional civil realm to the political order of the state and distilling movement's trajectories in its quest for political prominence in the age of globalization. The theoretical and empirical sections of this chapter, then, proffer an interesting prism to the study of the broader linkage between religion and politics in the developing world, especially among non-democratic, or quasi-democracies countries, as found in the Arab Middle East, where religion has experienced recurrent revivals in presence and significance in states' social and political domains

The autonomous power of the state: its origins, mechanisms and results

1984 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-213 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Mann
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Empirical Research ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Major Power ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Agrarian Societies ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Industrial Societies ◽  
Unique Ability

This essay tries to specify the origins, mechanisms and results of the autonomous power which the state possesses in relation to the major power groupings of ‘civil society’. The argument is couched generally, but it derives from a large, ongoing empirical research project into the development of power in human societies. At the moment, my generalisations are bolder about agrarian societies; concerning industrial societies I will be more tentative. I define the state and then pursue the implications of that definition. I discuss two essential parts of the definition, centrality and territoriality, in relation to two types of state power, termed here despotic and infrastructural power. I argue that state autonomy, of both despotic and infrastructural forms, flows principally from the state's unique ability to provide a territorially-centralised form of organization.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
pp. 181-186
Author(s):  
Virginie Collombier
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Case Studies ◽  
State Power ◽  
The State ◽  
Common Interest ◽  
Changing Environment ◽  
Economic Transformations ◽  
Fertile Ground ◽  
Tribal Leadership ◽  
Tribal Areas

Based on the different case studies gathered in this volume, the conclusion argues that the weakening or collapse of state power, deep socio-economic transformations and civil warfare, as well as the subsequent crisis of tribal leadership and community cohesion have constituted a fertile ground for the development and rooting of jihadist groups in various tribal areas of the Middle East and Africa. The sense of threat that members of local tribes experienced in a changing environment has led to forms of cooperation when tribesmen and jihadists had a common interest in building bridges between the local and the global, beyond and sometimes against the state. Direct threat has also been key to the expansion of global jihadist forces in tribal areas.

Religion and Politics

2021 ◽  
pp. 432-454
Author(s):  
Keren Sasson
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Political Influence ◽  
Religion And Politics ◽  
The State ◽  
Political Order ◽  
Religious Movements ◽  
The Political ◽  
Religious Revival ◽  
Shifting Boundaries ◽  
Political Success

This chapter pertains to exploring the political resurgence of religion, seeking to answer the pressing question of first, what accounts for religious revival in the age of globalization and second, what accounts for the political success or failure of religious movements, mostly in terms of exerting political influence on their domestic spheres and arenas. In order to answer these questions, this chapter delineates the conditions under which the needs and imperatives of both religious movements and the political establishment of the state are conflictual or reconcilable. To this end, the intriguing case of the Egyptian Moslem Brotherhood will be analyzed, illustrating the shifting boundaries of Islam from its traditional civil realm to the political order of the state and distilling movement's trajectories in its quest for political prominence in the age of globalization. The theoretical and empirical sections of this chapter, then, proffer an interesting prism to the study of the broader linkage between religion and politics in the developing world, especially among non-democratic, or quasi-democracies countries, as found in the Arab Middle East, where religion has experienced recurrent revivals in presence and significance in states' social and political domains

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document