American University in Cairo

Department of Political Science

Middle East Politics: POLS 535 Fall 2013

Tuesday: 5-7:25 p.m. in CP 58 HUSS

Instructor: Dr.Clement M. Henry

Office: Huss 2003

E-mail:.

Office Hours:Sunday: 10-12; Monday: 2-4,Tuesday, 3-5,orby appointment

Course Description

This seminar will critically examine various theoretical (eg. Weberian, Marxist, and post-modern) approaches to the study of politics in the Middle East and North Africa, particularly within the Arab world. We stress theoretical assumptions about politics as well as the content of contemporary everyday politics in the region because our understanding of the everyday may be victim to our own intellectual tastes and prejudices. For instance, is "Islamism" an ideology like Marxist-Leninism? Are the "Bolsheviks" or extremists bound to win out? We tend to think by analogy, and it is important for us to be aware of our underlying assumptions.

Under what conditions may "democracy" develop in the Muslim parts of the Middle East and North Africa? This seems to be the most important question facing the region today: how may the existing regimes, even if they shake off some heads of state, make transitions to democracy?We will keep coming back to this question of democratic transitions as we analyze institutions, processes, classes, civil society, religion, groups, modes of production, clienteles, ideologies, strategic elites, professions, and the like--categories used in analyzing and comparing political systems. You will be expected to acquire a good contextual appreciation of at least two countries of the Middle East or North Africa in addition to Egypt, which is well discussed in some of the core readings.

Books available for purchase

·POLS 535 Course pack – available at copying center

  • NazihAyubi,Overstating the Arab State(I.B. Tauris, 1995)

·**Francois Burgat,Islamism in the Shadow of al-Qaeda(U of Texas Press, 2008)

  • Steven A. Cook,Ruling but not Governing: The Military and Political Dvelopment in Egypt, Algeria, and Turkey (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University press, 2007)

· **Amaney A. Jamal ,Barriers to Democracy: The other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World(Princeton UP, 2009)

·AbdellahHammoudi,Master and Disciple: The Cultural Foundations of Moroccan Authoritarianism(U. of Chicago Press, 1997)

· **Zachary Lockman,Contending Visions of the Middle East: the History and Politics of Orientalism(Cambridge UP, 2004)

  • Oliver Schlumberger, ed.,Debating Arab Authoritarianism(Stanford University Press, 2008)

·BahgatKorany and Rabab El-Mahdi, eds.,Arab Spring in EgyptRevolution and Beyond ,AUC Press, 2012

·LisaWedeen,Peripheral Visions: Publics, Power, and Performance in(Chicago Studies in Practices of Meaning), (U of Chicago Press, 2008).

  • Joshua Stacher,Adaptable Autocrats: Regime Power in Egypt and Syria(Stanford UP and AUC Press, 2012)

** required

Seminar assignments

You will each be expected to keep up with the assigned reading.Please take notes as you read along, as they will help you in writing your two essays, each 3 to 5000 words.The essays are like take home exams.You choose a question from some of my suggestions or devise one of your own.You should try to cite at least 15 of the required readings and present a coherent argument.You do not summarize each reading for its own sake.You use it instead to support or oppose the argument you are making.These two essays are designed to help you integrate your readings.

In addition to these essays you will be expected in class each week to report on one of the several required reading assignments, while of course also keeping up with the rest of the reading so that we can have a good class discussion!

You will also present two one-page single-spaced reports on a recommended book and give copies to the rest of the class.

Grading criteria

Take-home essays, each 35% of grade

Two book reports, 10%

Class reports on assigned readings, 10%

Additional class participation and discussion, 10%

Topics and readings

1st week(September 3): INTRODUCTION

Language and politics - what is “the Middle East and North Africa,” “Arab spring,” “Revolution,” all the isms?

Distinctive region?Arabexceptionalism?

Enduringauthoritarianism?

Comparing“ArabAwakenings"

Note thereflexive natureof politicallanguage!

Please come to class having read:

  • Roundtable on the Language of Revolution in Egypt-Jadaliyyawith Paul Sedra, Robert Springborg, Joshua Stacher, Adam Sabra, and Elliott Colla, Aug 12, 2012
  • NoureddineJebnoun, "Rethinking the Paradigm of "Durable" and "Stable" Authoritarianism in the Middle East, in Jeboun et al, eds.,Modern Middle East Authoritarianism(Routledge, 2014), pp. 1-24, availableonlineat amazon.com, supplemented byRoutledgefor pp. 1-11, and by POLS for pp.12-23and24.

2nd week(Sept. 10): AREA STUDIES: "Orientalists" and their critics

·Zachary Lockman,Contending Visions, 111-147, 182-214, and as much else as you have time to read.

·YahyaSadowski, "The New Orientalism and the Democracy Debate,"Middle East Report(July-Aug 1993), 14-21.plusp 40! [best to get it direct from JSTOR, AUC Library]

·Lisa Wedeen,Peripheral Visions: Publics, Power, and Performance in Yemen,pp. 1-21 – in Course Pack.

3rd week(Sept 17): COLONIAL SITUATIONS: Western deconstructions of Arab societies

  • Roger Owen,State, Power and Politics, 3rd ed., pp. 1-22.
  • NazihAyubi,Over-Stating the Arab State, pp. 1-37, 99-108 (optional).
  • Francois Burgat,In the Shadow of al-Qaeda,pp. 1-30.
  • Henry and Springborg,chapter 1ofGlobalization and the politics of development in the Middle East,2nd edition (Cambridge University Press, 2010), pp. 1-19.

4th week(Sept 24): CIVIL SOCIETY AND POST-COLONIAL STATES

  • El-Kenz, Ali,Algerian Reflections on Arab Crises(Center for ME Studies, UT, 1992), pp. 9-31
  • Bryan Turner, "Orientalism and the Problem of Civil Society in Islam"
  • Sami Zubaida, "Islam, the State & Democracy: Contrasting Conceptions of Society in Egypt,"Middle East Report(Nov-Dec 1992), 2-10.
  • Salim Nasr, Arab Civil Societies and Public Governance Reform: An Analytic Framework and Overview (2005) -downloadand view the availablecountry descriptions of media and civil society
  • Civil Society in Qatar (4-page memo, 2009) – incourse pack
  • Amaney A. Jamal,Barriers to Democracy: The other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World(Princeton UP, 2009), chapter 1.
  • Oliver Schlumberger,Debating Arab Authoritarianism,pp. 1-20
  • Steven Heydemann, Social Pacts and the Persistence of Authoritarianism, inOliver Schlumberger,Debating Arab Authoritarianism,pp. 1-38
  • Peter Sluglett, The Ozymandia Syndrome: Questioning the Stability of Middle Eastern Regimes, inOliver Schlumberger,Debating Arab Authoritarianism,pp.93-108

5th week(Oct. 1):RELIGION AND POLITICS: Islamic movements in civil society?

  • EllisGoldberg, "Smashing Idols and the State: The Protestant Ethic and Egyptian Sunni Radicalism," Comparative Studies in Society and History (1991), 3-35.[better pdf]
  • Roger Owen, pp.154-177.
  • William E. Shepard, "Islam and Ideology,"International Journal of Middle East Studies19 (1987), pp. 307-336. [he has also written "SayyidQutb's Doctrine of 'Ja-hiliyya',"International Journal of Middle East Studies35 (2003)]
  • Francois Burgat, Islamism in the Shadow of al-Qaeda (U of Texas Press, 2008) - finish it.
  • Robert D. Lee,Religion and Politics,The Taming of Islam in Egypt (chapter 3) or another country chapter of your choice, plus chapter 7, pp. 267-302.
  • Said El-Naggar,A Social Science Approach to Modernization, Berlin 2001.
  • Ibrahim El Houdaiby, "Islamism in and after Egypt's Revolution," in Korany and El-Mahdi, eds.,Arab Spring in Egypt: Revolution and Beyond(AUC Press, 2012)
  • Nathan Brown,When Victory is not an Option: Islamist Movements in Arab Politics,pp. 1-12.
  • optional:SeeAl-Azhar Document on the Future of Egypt of 21 June 2011cited above.
  • optional:Clement Henry andRodney Wilson, eds.,The Politics of Islamic Finance(Edinburgh University Press, 2004), draftIntroductionandConclusion- apparently the whole book is nowavailable online! Here is aquick summary by a reviewer.
  • optional:Clement M. Henry,Population, urbanisation and the dialectics of globalisation,Cambridge History of Islam,vol. VI(2010)(proofs)

6th week(Tuesday, Oct. 8): CIVIL SOCIETY AND DEMOCRACY

  • Amaney A. Jamal,Barriers to Democracy: The other Side of Social Capital in Palestine and the Arab World(Princeton UP, 2009), complete,and, optional:my review in Perspectives on Politics(2008)
  • Amaney Jamal, “Actors, Public Opinion, and Participation,” ch. 5 in Ellen Lust, ed.,The Middle East, 12th edition (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2011), pp. 193-237
  • Sheri Berman, "Civil Society and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic," World Politics. April 1997, pp. 401-429
  • ______, "Islamism, Revolution, and Civil Society," Perspectives in Politics, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2003)
  • Lisa Wedeen,Peripheral Visions, pp 103-147 (in course pack)
  • Lisa Blaydes and Drew A. Linzer,Elite Competition, Religiosity, and Anti-Americanism in Islamic World, American Political Science Review,May 2012, pp. 225-243
  • Amaney Jamal,Of Empires and Citizens: Pro-American Democracy or No Democracy At All?pp 1-21.
  • Amaney Jamal and Mark Tessler, “The Democracy Barometers: Attitudes in the Arab World,”Journal of Democracy,19:1 (Jan. 2008) Online: in Course Pack - look at the Arab Barometer projectonline- andthe data.

7th week (Oct. 22): POST-COLONIAL POLITICAL CULTURES: The problem of legtimacy

  • Michael Hudson, "The Legitimacy Problem in Arab Politics," Arab Politics, pp. 1-30
  • Michael Hudson,The Political Culture Approach to Arab Democratization: The Case for Bringing It Back In, Carefully, in Rex Brynen et al, 1995: 61-76
  • AbdellahHammoudi,Master and Disciple: The Cultural Foundations of Moroccan Authoritarianism,pp. 1-9, 98-133, 150-158, in Course Pack, [but the entire book is strongly recommended]
  • optional: background on Morocco:Maghraoui and Zerhouni, Morocco,chapter 18in Lust ed, Middle East, 2011 edition;James Liddell, “Notables, Clientelism, and the Politics of Change in Morocco,” Journal of North African Studies, 15:3 (September 2010). Pp. 315-331 (available onlineAUC Library)
  • Marc Valeri,Incorporating the Omani Political Tradition into the State, in Oliver Schlumbrger,Debating Arab Authoritarianism,chapter 9, pp. 143-158

First paper due, to be submitted to turnitin.com by 9 a.m., Oct. 30

8th week (Oct. 29):THE CLIENTELIST PARADIGM: Notables and shilla-s

  • "Lebanon: zuamaclientelism," in Library of Congress Country Studies (1987).
  • James C. Scott, "Patron-Client Politics and Political Change in Southeast Asia," The American Political Science Review, Vol. 66, No. 1. (Mar., 1972), pp. 91-113, available at PCL Jstorslinkedhere.
  • Douglass C. North et al,In the Shadow of Violence(2012),Limited Access Orders, pp 1-6. (follow the link to amazon.com, look in the book and view first pages).
  • Steven Heydemann,Networks of Privilege in the Middle East, pp. 1-35, 77- 100 (Whales of Egypt) – in Course Pack.
  • Mohammed Hachemaoui, "Algeria's May 17, 2007 parliamentary elections or the political representation crisis,"Arab Reform Initiative(Carnegie Foundation), 17 July 2007.
  • Isabelle Werenfels,Managing Instability in Algeria(Routledge 2007), pp. 134-143, in Course Pack.
  • (Optional background reading)LaouariAddi,Algeria, ch. 9 in Ellen Lust, ed.,The Middle East,12thedition (Congressional Quarterly Press, 2011), pp. 371-386.

9th week (Nov. 12): SOCIAL BASES AND POLITICAL MOBILIZATION: the "New Middle Class" from 1950s to 2010s

  • Manfred Halpern, "The New Middle Class" in The Politics of Social Change in the Middle East and North Africa – in Course Pack
  • Eva Bellin, "The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East,"Comparative Politics36: 2 (Jan 2004), 139-158
  • Eva Bellin, "Contingent Democrats: Industrialists, Labor and Democratization in Late-Developing Countries," World Politics, 52 (January 2000), 175-205
  • G. Luciani, Linking Economic and Political Reform in the Middle East, inOliver Schlumberger,Debating Arab Authoritarianism,pp.161-176
  • optional: see also Lucianichapterin Aarts and Nonneman on Saudi Arabian bourgeoisie - and pleasenote relative sizesof industryvalue-addedin MENA countries.
  • Steven Heydemann, "Upgrading Authoritarianism in the Arab World," Brookings, October 2007
  • Christopher M. Schroeder,Startup Rising (2013),kindle intro
  • David M. Faris, "The end of the beginning: The failure of April 6th and the future of electronic activism in Egypt," Arab Media and Society, Issue 9, Fall 2009
  • Abdulaziz Sager,The Private Sector in the Arab World– Road Map Towards Reform, Arab Refor Initiative, Dec . 10, 2007.

Optional:

  • Examine the age pyramid distributions of Algeria, Saudi Arabia, and any other countries of your choice at or better thanks to Mike,click hereor
  • Mark Farha, "Demography and Democacy in Lebanon, inMiddle East Monitor3:1 (jan-march 2008)

10th week (Nov. 19):RENTIER STATES: Democratic Transitions or Demobilized Societies?

  • Michael L. Ross, "Will Oil Drown the Arab Spring?" Foreign Affairs, Sept-Oct. 2011.- you can also find links to EITI and the Revenue Watch Institute on myoil resource page.
  • Michael L. Ross,Oil and Democracy Revisited, UCLA Working Paper, 2009 [see also hishome pageand his book,The Oil Curse: how petroleum wealth shapes the development of nations, Princeton University Press, 2012]
  • Clement Henry, "Algeria's Oil Agonies,"Journal of Modern North African Studies,9:2 (2004), 68-81.
  • Timothy Mitchell, "Carbon Democracy," Economy and Society 38:3 (summer 2009), 399-432.
  • RivkaAzoulay,The Politics of Shi'i Merchants in Kuwait, in Steffen Hertog et al,Business Politics in the Middle East,chapter 4, pp. 67-99
  • Thomas Richter, Political Economy of Regime Maintenance in Egypt, in Oliver Schlumberger,Debating Arab Authoritarianism,pp. 177-194.
  • optional:SamerSoliman,The Autumn of Dictatorship: Fiscal Crisis and Political Change in Egypt under Mubarak(Stanford, 2012)

11th week (Nov. 26):MILITARY RULE AND POLICE STATES

  • Roger Owen, pp. 178-199 – in Course Pack
  • Steven A. Cook,Ruling but not Governing, entire.
  • Clement Henry and Robert Springborg, "Army guys,"The American Interest, VI: 5 (May-June 2011)
  • Henry and Springborg,Globalization and the Politics of Development in the Middle East,chapter 4: the bunker regimes of Algeria and Syria (online pdf penultimate version)
  • YezidSayigh, "Above the State: the Officers' Republic in Egypt," Carnegie Paper, August 2012
  • Philippe Droz-Vincent, From Political to Economic Actors, inOliver Schlumberger,Debating Arab Authoritarianism,pp.195-214
  • Recommended:HazemKandil,Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen: Egypt's Road to Revolt(London: Verso, 2012)

12th week (Dec 3): ARAB SPRING, ARABISM, ISLAMISM: Regional Integration or Disintegration?

  • Roger Owen,State, Power and Politics,pp. 56-72
  • Michael Hudson, ed,Middle East Dilemma, Columbia UP, 1999, chaps 1 (Hudson), 2 (BahgatKorany), and 4 (BassemTibi)
  • "Egypt and Beyond: The Arab Spring, the New Pan-Arabism, and the Challenges of Transition," in BahgatKorany and Rabab El-Mahdi, eds.,Arab Spring in Egypt Revolution and Beyond, AUC Press, 2012, pp. 271-294.
  • Mustapha KamalSayyid, International Dimensions of Middle Eastern Authoritarianism, inOliver Schlumberger,Debating Arab Authoritarianism,pp.215-230
  • Lee McGowan,Theorizing European Integration, Europe Online Paper, May 2007
  • Optional:Carolyn M. Warner and Manfred W. Werner, "Religion and Political Organization of Muslims in Europe,"Perspectives on Politics4:3 (Sept 2006), pp. 457-479.
  • Optional:AdeelMalik andBassemAwadallah,The Economics of the Arab Spring, Oxford online
  • Optional:Thomas Carothers,Revitalizing US Democracy Assistance, Carnegie 2009 [optional update, "How not to promote democracy in Egypt,"Washington Post, Feb. 11, 2011]

13th week (Dec. 10): CONCLUSIONS ABOUT POLITICAL DEMOCRACY AND SOCIAL JUSTICE IN THE REGION

  • *Philippe Schmitter,Reflections on "Transitology" - Before and after,Journal of Democracy, forthcoming.
  • Philippe Schmitter,Ambidextrous Democratization(draft paper Sept 2012)
  • Joshua Stacher, Adaptable Autocrats, pp. 1-27, 79-175.
  • S.A. Arjomand, "Iran's Revolution in Comparative Perspective" World Politics 38: 3 (April 1986) - from JSTOR
  • *Thomas Carothers, “The End of the Transition Paradigm,” Journal of Democracy 13:1 (January 2002) – online pdf -and response by G O'Donnell, Journal of Democracy 13:3 (July 2002), pp. 6-12 (to downloadfrom libraryor froman old course pack.
  • Lou Cantori,Americanized Political Science and the State as a Coercive Institution in the Middle East, 1999 APSA paper. [as I reread Cantori on Hegel, my thoughts turn to an Egyptian Hegelian, Hassan Hanafi, and a rich debate about "occidentalism" - the point being that all cultures are dialectically interlinked with the West, not frozen in some Hegelian 1800 "moment." SeeBonnett on Occidentalism, for example, if you have time to envelop Said, Orientalism et al into debates ranging from Japan to India]
  • Saifedean H. Ammous,Arab Corporatism, ERF, Dec 2012
  • Ellen Lust-Okar, The Management of Opposition...in Egypt, Jordan, and Morocco, inOliver Schlumberger,Debating Arab Authoritarianism,pp.39-58
  • optional Lust-Okar, "Divided They Rule,"Comparative Politics36: 2 (Jan 2004), 159-180 [her bookStructuring Conflictnoted in fn 11is also available online]
  • Daniela Pioppi, Privatization of Social Services - Revival ofAwqaf,inOliver Schlumberger,Debating Arab Authoritarianism,pp.129-142
  • Paul Aartz, The Longevity of the House of Saud, inOliver Schlumberger,Debating Arab Authoritarianism,pp.251-270

Second paper due – to be submitted toturnitin.comby 9 a.m. Dec. 12.

(revised edition: 4 September 2013)

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