Islam and Modernity: Nurcholish Madjid's Interpretation of Civil Society, Pluralism, Secularization, and Democracy

2005 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 486-505 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andi Faisal Bakti

AbstractDebates on the applicability of the "modern" Western concepts of civil society, pluralism, secularization and democracy, together with Islam, significantly developed since the 1970s in Indonesia, in particular since the emergence of Nurcholish Madjid (hereafter Madjid). By the end of the 1980s, the Paramadina Foundation, which was established in 1986 by Madjid, among others, increasingly attracted higher middle-class individuals who claimed to adopt a progressive and open approach to Islam. Through Paramadina, Madjid, among others, developed his own idea of civil society. He is one of the most obvious champions of "neo-modernism" in Indonesia, as these ideas of both "modernism" and "traditionalism" are combined when they are relevant and suitable for society. The question addressed here is how Madjid interprets the concepts of civil society, pluralism, secularization and democracy as his main discourses? In other words, how does Madjid define and pave the way for Islamic development in Indonesia? What approaches does he use? While the concepts developed in Paramadina are basically inclusivism, pluralism, integralism, tolerance and democracy, on the way to achieving masyarakat madani (the Indonesian translation of civil society as adopted by Madjid), it seems that Madjid falls short of promoting local and global human values, international relations and communication. In fact, he adopts a cultural and nationalistic approach within the framework of Indonesian nationalism, which could lead to cultural crystallisation, particularism, localism and, eventually, atavism. These factors, however, if given a humanistic and global flavour — as set forward by the communication approach to human development — could indeed contribute to the emancipation of local citizens, from a parochial and centralized nationalism adhered to today by many Indonesian leaders. Thus, thinking globally and acting locally could be a liberating force for all.

2003 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 46-87
Author(s):  
Ataul Huq Pramanik

This paper seeks to achieve the following objectives: to discuss the idea of unity from the Islamic and secular perspectives; to test empirically how the absence of certain universal values (virtues) in the pursued development strategies shattered unity and thereby led to the Ummah’s disintegration; to examine how the interrelationships between growth and democracy can promote unity by creating a civil society through higher human development; and to examine the Organization of the Islamic Conference’s (OIC) role in strengthening unity among diverse Muslim communities.


Author(s):  
Laura J. Shepherd

Chapter 5 outlines the ways in which civil society is largely associated with “women” and the “local,” as a spatial and conceptual domain, and how this has implications for how we understand political legitimacy and authority. The author argues that close analysis reveals a shift in the way in which the United Nations as a political entity conceives of civil society over time, from early engagement with non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to the more contemporary articulation of civil society as consultant or even implementing partner. Contemporary UN peacebuilding discourse, however, constitutes civil society as a legitimating actor for UN peacebuilding practices, as civil society organizations are the bearers/owners of certain forms of (local) knowledge.


2012 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-476
Author(s):  
TAKASHI INOGUCHI

This special issue focuses on the role of civil society in international relations. It highlights the dynamics and impacts of public opinion on international relations (Zaller, 1992). Until recently, it was usual to consider public opinion in terms of its influence on policy makers and in terms of moulding public opinion in the broad frame of the policy makers in one's country. Given that public opinion in the United States was assessed and judged so frequently and diffused so globally, it was natural to frame questions guided by those concepts which pertained to the global and domestic context of the United States.


1981 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 15-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Nicholson

Among the school of scholars of international relations, neatly called by Roy Jones the ‘English School’, the work of Martin Wight is placed in particularly high esteem. More perhaps than anyone else, he is regarded as the scholar who did international relations as it ought to be done. I suppose no one would assert that this form is exclusive and needed no complement. The need for the discussion of economic factors in international relations for example would presumably not be denied, nor that such a discussion might not need other methods. What I take to be asserted, however, is that the sort of problem which Wight faced is central to international relations (and given the generality of some of these problems, for some issues, at least, this would not be widely denied) but more importantly that the way he tackled them is the right way.


2003 ◽  
Vol 66 (3) ◽  
pp. 472-485 ◽  
Author(s):  
CATHERINE HALL

This article uses the World Anti-Slavery Convention of 1840, and the way in which it was represented in Benjamin Robert Haydon's painting of it, to reflect on the ways in which Britons thought of themselves as an ’imperial people’, ’lords of humankind’, fit to rule over others. The Whig reforms of the 1830s had brought the enfranchisement of large numbers of middle-class men, and the emancipation of the enslaved across the British Empire. Excavating the assumptions of the abolitionists who gathered at the Convention allows us to see how new hierarchies of difference were encoded by 1840, placing freed black men, middle-class women and Irish Catholics on the margins of the new body politic.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 200
Author(s):  
Asma Abdullah Alzakari

The present research aims to identify the mechanisms required for investing the social capital of retired Saudi woman and the relevant obstacles. To achieve the research objectives, the author adopted the descriptive analytical approach. A questionnaire was used to identify the major mechanisms and obstacles of investing the social capital of retired Saudi woman. The results showed that the mechanism of (the inclusion of retired holders of master or doctorate degrees in the membership of evaluation committees instead of the external evaluators) was ranked the most required one, whereas the mechanism of (providing good allowances and benefits for the retired women to encourage them to return to work and rearranging their life requirements according to the relevant studies and papers) was ranked the least required.  Furthermore, it indicated the substantial obstacles that prevent investing the social capital of retired Saudi woman. The paper recommends collaboration among civil society institutions to reinforce and disseminate volunteering culture, especially among the retired women because they constitute the foundations of the community that adopts the fundamentals ​​of social capital, which achieve human development by setting the regulations that organize and protect voluntary work.   Received: 4 October 2020 / Accepted: 30 November 2020 / Published: 17 January 2021


2007 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-54
Author(s):  
Antonio P. Contreras

This paper inquires into the implications of the different discursive imaginations on civil societies and the state from the perspective of the social sciences, particularly political science and international relations. It focuses on some interfaces and tensions that exist between civil society on one hand, and the state and its bureaucratic instrumentalities on the other, particularly in the domain of environment and natural resources governance in the context of new regionalisms and of alternative concepts of human security. There is now a new context for regionalism in Southeast Asia, not only among state structures, such as the ASEAN and the various Mekong bodies, but also among local civil societies coming from the region. It is in this context that issues confronting local communities are given a new sphere for interaction, as well as a new platform for engaging state structures and processes. This paper illustrates how dynamic are the possibilities for non-state domains for transnational interactions, particularly in the context of the emerging environmental regionalism. This occurs despite the dominance of neo-realist political theorizing, and the state-centric nature of international interactions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 110-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Claire Vergerio

AbstractWhile the discipline of International Relations (IR) has a long tradition of celebrating ‘great thinkers’ and appropriating their ideas for contemporary theories, it has rarely accounted for how these authors came to be seen as ‘great’ in the first place. This is at least partly a corollary of the discipline’s long-standing aversion to methodological reflection in its engagement with intellectual history, and it echoes IR’s infamous tendency to misportray these great thinkers’ ideas more broadly. Drawing on existing attempts to import the methodological insights of historians of political thought into IR, this article puts forward a unified approach to the study of great thinkers in IR that combines the tenets of so-called ‘Cambridge School’ contextualism with those of what broadly falls under the label of reception theory. I make the case for the possibility of developing a coherent methodology through the combination of what is often seen as separate strands of intellectual history, and for the value of such an approach in IR. In doing so, the article ultimately offers a more rigorous methodology for engaging with the thought of great thinkers in IR, for analyzing the way a specific author’s ideas come to have an impact in practice, and for assessing the extent to which these ideas are distorted in the process.


Author(s):  
Андрій Матвійчук

Сформульовано визначення поняття «міжнародна неурядова організація» (МНУО) як організоване об'єднання представників громадськості різних країн, створене відповідно до національного законодавства для досягнення цілей і завдань розвитку громадянського суспільства й міжнародних відносин, що діє відповідно до загальновизнаних принципів Уставу ООН і норм міжнародного права на території двох і більше держав і володіє консультативним статусом. З’ясовано, що видовими ознаками, які містять у собі: цілі й завдання, характер діяльності, форму організації, наявність консультативного статусу тощо визначається відмінність міжнародної НУО від інших суб'єктів міжнародних відносин. Такі родові ознаки (як от: факт об'єднання людей, наявність постійних органів управління, Статуту тощо) є загальними для всього класу (роду) організацій. Обгрунтовано, що МНУО як учасник міжнародних відносин, є суб'єктом міжнародного права, однак їх правосуб'єктність має функціональний характер, тобто обмежений її консультативним статусом. Продемонстровано, що МНУО є неофіційною сполучною ланкою між національними урядами й міжнародним співтовариством, беруть активну участь у розробці міжнародних стандартів, методів, моделей і співвідносять їхню національну значимість з міжнародно-правовою. Зазначається, що у національному законодавстві України спостерігається тенденція оптимальної розробки питань, що стосуються правового статусу МНУО з огляду на міжнародні принципи й стандарти. Водночас, не можна йти шляхом повного їхнього копіювання, оскільки держава, ґрунтуючись на своєму суспільно-історичному досвіді, досвіді функціонування правової системи, на існуючих суспільних відносинах і своїх національних інтересах, сама має право визначати правовий статус МНУО. Пропонується у змінах до закону «Про неурядові організації» відобразити основну ідею, яка полягає в тому, що неурядові організації є ядром громадянського суспільства, найважливішим фактором розвитку демократичної держави й міжнародних відносин, засобом реалізації громадянами своїх прав і свобод. Matviichuk Andriy V. Activities of international nongovernmental organizations in the legislative and legal space of Ukraine The definition of the concept of "international non-governmental organization" (international NGO) as an organized association of representatives of the public of different countries, formulated in accordance with the national legislation for the achievement of the goals and objectives of the development of civil society and international relations acting in accordance with the generally recognized principles of the Charter of the United Nations and the norms of international law on the territory of two or more states and has consultative status. It was found out that the specific features that include: goals and objectives, the nature of activity, the form of organization, the presence of consultative status, etc., is determined by the distinction of the international NGO from other subjects of international relations. Such generic attributes (such as the fact of association of people, the presence of permanent bodies of government, the Statute, etc.) are common to the entire class (kind of) organizations. It is substantiated that international NGO as a participant in international relations is a subject of international law, but their legal personality is functional, that is, limited by its consultative status. It has been demonstrated that the international NGO is an informal link between national governments and the international community and is actively involved in the development of international standards, methods, models and their national relevance with international legal law. It is noted that in the national legislation of Ukraine there is a tendency for the optimal development of issues related to the legal status of the international NGO, taking into account international principles and standards. At the same time, it is impossible to go through the full copying of them, since the state, on the basis of its socio-historical experience, the experience of functioning of the legal system, in existing social relations and its national interests, has the right to determine the legal status of the Ministry of the Interior. The proposed amendments to the law "On Non-Governmental Organizations" reflect the basic idea that non-governmental organizations are the core of civil society, the most important factor in the development of a democratic state and international relations, as a means of citizens' realization of their rights and freedoms.


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