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Beyond the Arab Spring: The Evolving Ruling Bargain in the Middle East
The Arab Spring occurred within the context of the unravelling of the dominant 'ruling bargain' that emerged across the Middle East in the 1950s. This is being replaced by a new and in- choate system that redefines sources of authority and legitimacy through various devices (such as constitutions), experiences, and processes (mass protests, civil wars, and elections), by reassessing the roles, functions, and at times the structures of institutions (political parties and organisations, the armed forces, the executive); and by the initiative of key personalities and actors (agency).
Across the Arab world and the Middle East, 'authority' and 'political legitimacy' are in flux. Where power will ultimately reside depends largely on the shape, voracity, and staying power of these new, emerging conceptions of authority. The contributors to this book examine the nature and evolution of ruling bargains, the political systems to which they gave rise, the steady unravelling of the old systems and the structural consequences thereof, and the uprisings that have engulfed much of the Middle East since December 2010.
Across the Arab world and the Middle East, 'authority' and 'political legitimacy' are in flux. Where power will ultimately reside depends largely on the shape, voracity, and staying power of these new, emerging conceptions of authority. The contributors to this book examine the nature and evolution of ruling bargains, the political systems to which they gave rise, the steady unravelling of the old systems and the structural consequences thereof, and the uprisings that have engulfed much of the Middle East since December 2010.
480 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2014
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 10, 2016
In this book editor Mehran Kamrava publishes the essays of 15 authors about the "evolving ruling bargain in the Middle East". The book has two parts: 1. Contextualizing the Arab Spring. 2. Case studies.
The "ruling bargain" concept to explain the Middle East resilient authoritarianism and its chaotic demise has been around for a while mainly in the Western academic world. Kamrava defines it as
The first chapter, The rise and fall of ruling bargains in the Middle East, by Mehran Kemrava is the highlight of this book. He satisfactorily defines the concept, its application in the Middle East, its evolution from the poscolonial years to the current turmoil. This chapter can be used in the classroom as an introduction to power arrangements in the Arab world and its increasing authoritarianism in the last decades. The cites to renowned political scientists and other concepts such as political party and civil society, can be useful to spark debate and further research on behalf of the students.
Unfortunately, this insight quality is not sustained in the rest of the chapters, which often are shallow in their analysis and ill defined in their scope. For the sake of length and readability I will briefly mention some problems.
In chapter 2, Global affinities, John Foran portrays a new global culture of protest/resistance/contestation. This chapter is simply bad scholarship: he haphazardly connects the dots, distant events of which he clearly lacks understanding, especially when it comes to Latin America. He offers little to no evidence other than his forced narrative and some anecdotal quotes. He barely mentions the ruling bargain in two separate sentences, apparently as a compromise with the editor.
In chapter 3, The Arab state and social contestation, Nadine Sika refers to the state formation processes in the Middle East. She plunges onto the interesting idea of how that stage shaped the regime responses to protests in 2011, from Tunisia's pacific revolt to the more violent Egypt and Libya. She makes relevant distinctions between State and regime, and the relations between the army, ministry of interior and presidency. However I would like to see whether this can be extended to the whole region or she just cherry picked three cases and elaborated a theory about it.
In chapter 4, Islamist movements and the Arab Spring, Abdullah al-Arian vows to analyze this overarching topic but he incomprehensibly focuses on the Muslim Brotherhood and an-Nahda, ignoring most of the other Islamic movements. Then he goes on to extrapolate his conclusions on the Brotherhood to all the Islamic movements, or even worse, to Islamism.
Chapter 5, Political party development before and after the Arab Spring by Shadi Hamid, is an example of ethnocentrism (Western-centrism more specifically). The fact that he only cites recognized Western scholars on the topic, such as Boix, Sartori, Lipset and Sitter, raises doubts about he validity of his analysis. Instead of an essay on party politics during the Arab Spring, it reads like an essay on the Western idea of how party politics should be during the Arab Spring. We need more, not less voices from people in the place of events, otherwise this chapter is just adapting the reality to our own ideas. Boaventura de Sousa Santos' Epistemologies of the South: Justice Against Epistemicide can be useful to start thinking about it.
Chapter 6, Revolution and constitution in the Arab world, 2011-2012, by Saïd Amir Arjomand is the other highlight of this book, along with Kamrava's chapter. It is a deep, well researched essay about the evolving ruling bargain in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya from the constitutional-institutional point of view. He analyzes four variations: variation in the traditions of the rule of law; variations in the character of the old states and the power structure sustaining them; variation in the extent of negotiated change versus variations forced by revolutionary violence; and variations in the constitutional placement of Islam.
The second part of this book consists of 9 chapters with study cases in Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Libya and the "Gulf" (why do we keep using that generic term for a region so rich in traditions and diverse political developments?). Their quality varies but are overall satisfactory, for which I will leave the readers more interested in each country to reach their own conclusions.
This book is an ill fated effort with some editing problems and many signs of bad scholarship. The first and sixth chapters are worth reading and even used in courses related to politics, comparative politics, civil society, Middle East and constitutionalism.
The "ruling bargain" concept to explain the Middle East resilient authoritarianism and its chaotic demise has been around for a while mainly in the Western academic world. Kamrava defines it as
"implicit, unspoken assumptions on which the general parameters of state-society relations were premised. According to these assumptions, states presented themselves as defenders of broadly defined, vaguely articulated, and changeable notions of "national interest" -in terms of providing security, economic opportunities, social goods, fulfilment of national aspirations, and so on and so forth- in return for general political quiescence on the part of the social actors". (page 3)The rearrangement of this understanding which can also be understood along the lines of a social contract would be the underlying process of the Arab Spring.
The first chapter, The rise and fall of ruling bargains in the Middle East, by Mehran Kemrava is the highlight of this book. He satisfactorily defines the concept, its application in the Middle East, its evolution from the poscolonial years to the current turmoil. This chapter can be used in the classroom as an introduction to power arrangements in the Arab world and its increasing authoritarianism in the last decades. The cites to renowned political scientists and other concepts such as political party and civil society, can be useful to spark debate and further research on behalf of the students.
Unfortunately, this insight quality is not sustained in the rest of the chapters, which often are shallow in their analysis and ill defined in their scope. For the sake of length and readability I will briefly mention some problems.
In chapter 2, Global affinities, John Foran portrays a new global culture of protest/resistance/contestation. This chapter is simply bad scholarship: he haphazardly connects the dots, distant events of which he clearly lacks understanding, especially when it comes to Latin America. He offers little to no evidence other than his forced narrative and some anecdotal quotes. He barely mentions the ruling bargain in two separate sentences, apparently as a compromise with the editor.
In chapter 3, The Arab state and social contestation, Nadine Sika refers to the state formation processes in the Middle East. She plunges onto the interesting idea of how that stage shaped the regime responses to protests in 2011, from Tunisia's pacific revolt to the more violent Egypt and Libya. She makes relevant distinctions between State and regime, and the relations between the army, ministry of interior and presidency. However I would like to see whether this can be extended to the whole region or she just cherry picked three cases and elaborated a theory about it.
In chapter 4, Islamist movements and the Arab Spring, Abdullah al-Arian vows to analyze this overarching topic but he incomprehensibly focuses on the Muslim Brotherhood and an-Nahda, ignoring most of the other Islamic movements. Then he goes on to extrapolate his conclusions on the Brotherhood to all the Islamic movements, or even worse, to Islamism.
Chapter 5, Political party development before and after the Arab Spring by Shadi Hamid, is an example of ethnocentrism (Western-centrism more specifically). The fact that he only cites recognized Western scholars on the topic, such as Boix, Sartori, Lipset and Sitter, raises doubts about he validity of his analysis. Instead of an essay on party politics during the Arab Spring, it reads like an essay on the Western idea of how party politics should be during the Arab Spring. We need more, not less voices from people in the place of events, otherwise this chapter is just adapting the reality to our own ideas. Boaventura de Sousa Santos' Epistemologies of the South: Justice Against Epistemicide can be useful to start thinking about it.
Chapter 6, Revolution and constitution in the Arab world, 2011-2012, by Saïd Amir Arjomand is the other highlight of this book, along with Kamrava's chapter. It is a deep, well researched essay about the evolving ruling bargain in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya from the constitutional-institutional point of view. He analyzes four variations: variation in the traditions of the rule of law; variations in the character of the old states and the power structure sustaining them; variation in the extent of negotiated change versus variations forced by revolutionary violence; and variations in the constitutional placement of Islam.
The second part of this book consists of 9 chapters with study cases in Iran, Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Libya and the "Gulf" (why do we keep using that generic term for a region so rich in traditions and diverse political developments?). Their quality varies but are overall satisfactory, for which I will leave the readers more interested in each country to reach their own conclusions.
This book is an ill fated effort with some editing problems and many signs of bad scholarship. The first and sixth chapters are worth reading and even used in courses related to politics, comparative politics, civil society, Middle East and constitutionalism.
August 9, 2016
Wish I could have seen a chapter/essay dedicated to each specific GCC regime's counter-revolution strategies (especially Bahrain and Saudi Arabia) instead of lumping them all into one essay by a sole author.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews