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Institutional Roots of Authoritarian Rule in the Middle East: Civic Legacies of the Islamic Waqf

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Date
2014-06-12
Author
Kuran, T
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Abstract
In the pre-modern Middle East the closest thing to an autonomous private organization was the Islamic waqf. This non-state institution inhibited political participation, collective action, and rule of law, among other indicators of democratization. It did so through several mechanisms. Its activities were essentially set by its founder, which limited its capacity to meet political challenges. Being designed to provide a service on its own, it could not participate in lasting political coalitions. The waqf’s beneficiaries had no say in evaluating or selecting its officers, and they had trouble forming a political community. Thus, for all the resources it controlled, the Islamic waqf contributed minimally to building civil society. As a core element of Islam’s classical institutional complex, it perpetuated authoritarian rule by keeping the state largely unrestrained. Therein lies a key reason for the slow pace of the Middle East’s democratization process.
Type
Journal article
Subject
Middle East
Ottoman Empire
Turkey
Arab world
Egypt
Islamic law
sharia
waqf
democracy
autocracy
civil society
political participation
collective action
coalition
corporation
foundation
trust
institutional change.
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https://hdl.handle.net/10161/13168
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Kuran

Timur Kuran

Gorter Family Distinguished Professor of Islamic Studies
Timur Kuran is Professor of Economics and Political Science, and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies at Duke University. His research focuses on (1) social change, including the evolution of preferences and institutions, and (2) the economic and political history and modernization of the Middle East. His current projects include a study of the role that the Middle East’s traditional institutions played in its poor political performance, as measured by democratization and human liber

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