The Search for Arab Democracy: Discourses and Counter-Discourses

by Larbi Sadiki

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.

Genres: Politics

Paperback

First published January 5, 2002

Reviews

[Tiny · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was working on a programme for human rights and democracy in Egypt when I read this. I thought it might provide some useful background information. Well, not really, but it was incredibly thought provoking. I didn't read it cover to cover - a few chapters/interviews I found a bit tough, and so skipped onto something more appealing. But some parts of Sadiki's own analysis were, I think, quite illuminating. He uses methods that to me resembled literary theory/semiology to deconstruct accepted views of democracy but also to show how new and more vibrant forms of democracy are not just possible but necessary, not just for the Arab world but to rejuvenate a European and Western democracy that often doesn't get much further than the ballot box.