Islam, Democracy, and Constitutional Liberalism
Author(s): Fareed Zakaria
Source: Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 119, No. 1 (Spring, 2004), pp. 1-20
Published by: The Academy of Political Science
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and
Islam, Democracy,
Liberalism
Constitutional
FAREED ZAKARIA
the same
It is always
splendid
the same
and
setting,
sad story. A
senior U.S. diplomat enters one of the grand presidential palaces inHeliopolis,
the neighborhood of Cairo from which President Hosni Mubarak rules over
Egypt. He walks through halls of marble, through rooms filled with gilded furni
ture?all a bad imitation of imperial French style that has been jokingly called
"Louis Farouk" (after the last king of Egypt). Passing layers of security guards,
at a formal
he arrives
affairs,
regional
tinians. Then
the American
freedoms,
he
is received
with
great courtesy
two talk amiably
about U.S.-Egyptian
relations,
and the state of the peace process
between
Israel and the Pales
by the Egyptian
that Egypt's
room where
drawing
The
president.
raises
gently
the issue of human
ease up on political
government
might
and stop jailing
intellectuals.
Mubarak
rights and suggests
allow more
dissent,
press
tenses up and snaps,
"If I
were to do what you ask, Islamic fundamentalists will take over Egypt. Is that
what
you
want?"
The
moves
conversation
peace process.
Over
the years, Americans
When
President
Clinton
urged
to
back
and Arabs
have
the
latest
twist
in the
had many
such exchanges.
Arafat
to agree to the
leader Yasser
Palestinian
Camp David peace plan that had been negotiated in July 2001, Arafat report
edly responded with words to this effect: "If I do what you want, Hamas will be
in power
tomorrow."
The
most
Saudi monarchy's
Bandar bin Sultan, often reminds American
ernment
mocracy
too hard, the likely alternative
but a Taliban-style
theocracy.
FAREED ZAKARIA
ria
is now Editor
Future
of Freedom:
Prince
spokesman,
officials that if they press his gov
to the regime
is not
Jeffersonian
de
has published articles on democracy and Islam in scholarly journals. Dr. Zaka
of Newsweek
Illiberal
Political Science Quarterly
articulate
International
Democracy
Volume
119
and a columnist
at Home
Number
1
and Abroad,
2004
for Newsweek.
is being
His most
translated
recent
into fifteen
book,
The
languages.
1
2
I POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY
The worst part of it is, they may be right. The Arab rulers of the Middle
are autocratic,
East
and heavy-handed.
corrupt,
they are still more
But
liberal,
tolerant, and pluralistic than those who would likely replace them. Elections
Arab
many
closer
countries
to those
Abdullah.
King
would
of Osama
produce
bin Laden
Last
the emir
year,
who
espouse
of Jordan's
liberal monarch,
with American
encouragement,
politicians
than those
of Kuwait,
in
that are
views
proposed giving women the vote. But the democratically elected Kuwaiti par
liament?filled with Islamic fundamentalists?roundly
rejected the initiative.
crown
Saudi
tried something
Abdullah
prince
much
less dramatic
when
he pro
posed that women in Saudi Arabia be allowed to drive. (They are currently
forbidden to do so, which means that Saudi Arabia has had to import half a
million chauffeurs from places like India and the Philippines.) But the religious
conservatives mobilized popular opposition and forced him to back down.
A similar dynamic is evident elsewhere in theArab world. InOman, Qatar,
Bahrain,
are more
on virtually
and Morocco,
issue, the monarchs
every political
over which
the societies
in the Palestin
Even
they reign.
where
secular nationalists
like Arafat
and his Palestine
Libera
Jordan,
liberal
ian territories,
than
tion Organization
groups
religious
have long been themost popular political force, militant and
such
as Hamas
and
Islamic
are gaining
Jihad
strength,
espe
cially among the young. And although they speak the language of elections,
of the Islamic parties have been withering
in their contempt
for democ
as
a
see
Western
form
of
would
racy, which
government.
they
They
happily
come to power
but then would
set up their own theocratic
through an election,
one vote, one time.
rule. It would
be one man,
many
for example,
Compare,
in an al-Qaeda
forces
knowledge
caused.
reactions
opposite
in Kabul.
hideout
of the September
Most
genuine
the wildly
of state
and
to
society
2001 videotape of a gloating bin Laden found by U.S. armed
the November
On
tape, bin Laden
11 attacks and delights
shows
an intimate
in the loss of life they
of
the region's
noted
that the tape seemed
governments
quickly
a statement:
and proved
bin Laden's
Prince
Bandar
issued
"The
guilt.
the cruel
tape displays
and
inhumane
face of a murderous
criminal
who
has no
respect for the sanctity of human life or the principles of his faith." Abdul Latif
Arabiat,
head
Americans
tape
of Jordan's
Islamic
party,
the Islamic
Action
Front,
asked,
"Do
really think the world is that stupid that they would believe that this
is evidence?"
Inmost
societies, dissidents force their country to take a hard look at its
own failings. In theMiddle East, those who advocate democracy are the first to
seek
in fantasy, denial,
and delusion.
The
refuge
such as those claiming
that the Israeli
theories,
region
is awash
intelligence
in conspiracy
service,
Mossad,
was actually behind theWorld Trade Center attacks. In a CNN poll conducted
across nine Muslim countries in February 2002,61 percent of those polled said
that they did not believe thatArabs were responsible for the September 11 at
the first independent
tacks. Al-Jazeera,
in the region,
satellite
television
station
has an enormous
is
of
and
modern.
audience,
Many
pan-Arab
populist
which
ISLAM, DEMOCRACY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERALISM | 3
are women.
its anchors
sor. And
it fills
yet
with
and
anti-Semitism,
Americanism,
news
It broadcasts
its airwaves
that the official
crude
religious
cen
media
routinely
nationalism,
to Arab
appeals
fundamentalism.
anti
The Arab world today is trapped between autocratic states and illiberal so
cieties, neither of them fertile ground for liberal democracy. The dangerous dy
namic between these two forces has produced a political climate filled with reli
gious
extremism
more
the state becomes
As
and violence.
repressive,
opposition
within society grows more pernicious, goading the state into further repression.
It is the reverse of the historical process in theWestern world, where liberalism
produced democracy and democracy fueled liberalism. The Arab path has in
stead produced dictatorship, which has bred terrorism. But terrorism is only
the most
lectual
noted
of this dysfunction,
manifestation
social
and
stagnation,
intel
bankruptcy.
The Middle East today stands in stark contrast to the rest of the world,
where freedom and democracy have been gaining ground over the past two
decades. In its 2002 survey, Freedom House finds that 75 percent of the world's
countries are currently "free" or "partly free." Only 28 percent of theMiddle
Eastern
countries
be so described,
more
comparison,
could
last twenty years. By
as free or partly
today are classified
a percentage
that has fallen
than 60 percent
of African
during the
countries
free.
Since September 11, the political dysfunctions of the Arab world have sud
denly
presented
on
themselves
the West's
doorstep.
In the back
of everyone's
in the front of many?is
the question why. Why is this region the
case
of
the
basket
world?
Why is it the great holdout, the straggler in
political
the march of modern societies?
mind?and
Islam's Wide World
has an answer.
Bin Laden
For
him
the problem
with Arab
regimes
is that they
are insufficiently Islamic. Only by returning to Islam, he tells his followers, will
Muslims
achieve
emphasis
justice. Democracy,
on freedom
and tolerance
for bin Laden,
social
produces
is aWestern
decay
and
invention.
Its
licentiousness.
Bin Laden and those like him seek the overthrow of the regimes of the Arab
of the whole Muslim world?and
their replacement by polities
world?perhaps
founded on strict Islamic principles, ruled by Islamic law (sharia) and based
on the early Caliphate (the seventh-century Islamic kingdom of Arabia). Their
more
recent
role model
was
the Taliban
regime
in Afghanistan.
There are those in theWest who agree with bin Laden that Islam is the key
to understanding theMiddle East's turmoil. Preachers such as Pat Robertson
and Jerry Falwell and writers such as Paul Johnson and William Lind have
made
serious
the case
scholars
that
have
is a religion
of repression
and backwardness.
more
the problem
argued?far
insightfully?that
Islam
More
ismore
complex: for fundamentalist Muslims, Islam is considered a template for all life,
including politics. But classical Islam, developed in the seventh and eighth cen
4
I POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY
few of the
contains
turies,
an eminent
Kedourie,
ideas
that we
of Arab
student
associate
with
wrote,
politics,
democracy
today. Elie
"The idea of representa
tion, of elections, of popular suffrage, of political institutions being regulated
by laws laid down by a parliamentary assembly, of these laws being guarded
and upheld by an independent judiciary, the ideas of the secularity of state ...
are profoundly
all these
to the Muslim
alien
tradition."1
political
Certainly the Koranic model of leadership is authoritarian. The Muslim
holy book is bursting with examples of the just king, the pious ruler, the wise
arbiter. But the Bible has its authoritarian tendencies as well. The kings of the
Old Testament were hardly democrats. The biblical Solomon, held up as the
man
wisest
of all, was,
all, an absolute
after
monarch.
The
Bible
also
contains
passages that seem to justify slavery and the subjugation of women. The truth
is that little is to be gained by searching in the Koran for clues to Islam's true
nature.
is a vast book,
Koran
The
filled with
poetry
and contradictions?much
like the Bible and the Torah. All three books praise kings, as do most religious
texts. As
Catholic
for mixing
popes combined
authority,
spiritual and temporal
a
no
in
Muslim
ruler has
and
for
centuries
that
way
power
religious
political
ever been able to achieve.
with political
Judaism has had much
less involvement
in the
until Israel's founding,
Jews were a minority
power because,
everywhere
was
to
the word
world. Yet,
coined
describe
modern
"theocracy"
by Josephus
the political views of ancient Jews.2 The founding religious texts of all faiths
for the most
were,
insecurity.
age, one filled with monarchs,
the stamp of their times.
in another
part, written
and
war,
dalism,
They
bear
scholars of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries often
Still,Western
This assertion was probably
in
a community
of several hundred
authoritarianism.
encourages
view
of
the
Ottoman
their
Empire,
by
that Islam
argued
fluenced
feu
laboring docilely under the sultan in distant Constantinople,
million Muslims
to him before Friday
at the
But most
of the world
prayers.
singing hosannas
to political
In Russia,
time was quite similar in its deference
the czar
authority.
a god. In Japan,
was a god. On the whole,
was considered
almost
the emperor
more
were
than
Western
but Islamic rule was no
Asian
ones,
despotic
empires
more
or
Russian
autocratic
than were Chinese,
versions.
Japanese,
Indeed, if any intrinsic aspect of Islam isworth noting, it is not its devotion
to authority,
but the opposite:
Islam has an antiauthoritarian
streak that is evi
land today. It originates,
in several hadith?
dent
in every Muslim
probably,
to
which
of
the
Mohammed?in
obedience
the ruler is incum
sayings
Prophet
on
bent
1
Elie
Near
the Muslim
Kedourie,
East
Studies,
2
Bernard
Lewis,
Press,
University
3
The
hadith
the sometimes
it does
only
so far as the ruler's
are
commands
in keeping
with
law.3 If the ruler asks you to violate the faith, all bets are off. ("If he is
God's
not
of dubious
Democracy
1992), 5.
What
Went
97.
2002),
are often more
Koranic
general
tell them how
authenticity,
and Arab
Wrong:
important
Political
Western
than
For
Culture
Impact
the Koran
(Washington,
and Middle
DC: Washington
Eastern
Response
Institute
(Oxford:
how
they tell Muslims
the Koran
commands
Muslims
because
injunctions.
example,
to pray; this is found
in the hadith.
(There
and sometimes
each other.)
they contradict
are, of course,
many
for
Oxford
to implement
to pray, but
hadith,
many
ISLAM, DEMOCRACY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERALISM | 5
ordered to do a sinful act, aMuslim
should neither listen to [his leader] nor
are vague,
he obey his orders."4) Religions
of course. This means
that
can interpret
as you like. But
their prescriptions
they are easy to follow?you
some injunction
it also means
that it is easy to slip up?there
is always
you are
no
or
But
Islam
establishment?no
has
popes
religious
violating.
bishops?that
should
can declare by fiat which is the correct interpretation. As a result, the decision
to oppose
the state on the grounds
that it is insufficiently
Islamic can be exer
to do so. This much
cised by anyone who wishes
Islam shares with Protestant
ism. Just as a Protestant
with
Pat Robert
Falwell,
just a little training?Jerry
a religious
son?can
declare
himself
leader, so also can any Muslim
opine on
issues
of
In a religion
faith.
an
without
official
bin
clergy,
Laden
has
as
much?or as little?authority to issue fatwas (religious orders) as does a Paki
stani taxi driver inNew York City. The problem, in other words, is the absence
of religious authority in Islam, not its dominance.
Consider the source of the current chaos inArab lands. In Egypt, Saudi
Arabia,
and
Algeria,
Islamist5
elsewhere,
groups
wage
bloody
campaigns
against states that they accuse of betraying Islam. Bin Laden and his deputy,
the Egyptian Ayman Zawahiri, both laymen, began their careers by fighting
their own
because
governments
of policies
they deemed
un-Islamic
(for Zawa
hiri, itwas Egyptian president Anwar Sadat's 1978 peace treaty with Israel; for
bin Laden, itwas King Fahd's decision to allow American troops on Saudi soil
in 1991). In his 1996 declaration of jihad, bin Laden declared that the Saudi
government had left the fold of Islam, and so itwas permissible to take up arms
against it: "The regime betrayed the ummah (community of believers) and
joined the kufr (unbelievers), assisting and helping them against theMuslims."
Bin
Laden
called
for rebellion
rulers,
against
and many
to his call.
responded
The rulers of theMiddle East probably wish thatMuslims were more submis
sive
toward
authority.
There is also the question of timing: if Islam is the problem, then why is this
conflict taking place now? Why did Islamic fundamentalism take off only after
the 1979
Iranian
centuries.
There
scholars
Many
Islam
revolution?
have
have
larly Jews, were
been
pointed
persecuted
the West
and
have
coexisted
for fourteen
of war
but many more
of peace.
periods
periods
out that, until the 1940s, minorities,
and particu
less under Muslim
rule than under any other major
ity religion. That iswhy theMiddle East was for centuries home tomany minor
ities. It is commonly noted that amillion Jews left or were expelled from Arab
countries
after
the creation
of Israel
one
in 1948. No
asks why
so many
were
living inArab countries in the first place.
The
with
trouble
declarations
thundering
about
"Islam's
nature"
is that Is
lam, like any religion, is not what books make it but what people make it.Forget
4Sahih
Muslim, book 20, hadith 4533.
5
"Islamist"
up an Islamic
monly
used
to people,
that follows
refers
state
"Islamic
like bin Laden,
Islamic
fundamentalist,"
although
want
who
law strictly.
I use
many
to use
this term
scholars
as a political
ideology,
setting
com
with the more
interchangeably
Islam
prefer
the former.
I POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY
6
the rantings
of
the fundamentalists,
are a minority.
who
Most
Muslims'
daily
lives do not confirm the idea of a faith that is intrinsically anti-Western or anti
The most
modern.
Muslim
populous
in the world,
country
has had
Indonesia,
secular government since its independence in 1949, with a religious opposition
that is tiny (although now growing). As for Islam's compatibility with capital
was
ism, Indonesia
try, having
until
liberalized
the World
recently
its economy
Bank's
and grown
model
Third World
at 7 percent
a year
coun
for almost
three decades. It has now embraced democracy (still a fragile experiment) and
has elected
a woman
as its president.
After
Indonesia,
the three
largest Muslim
populations in the world are in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India (India's Mus
lims number more than 120 million). Not only have these countries had much
with democracy,
experience
and they did so well before
all three
have
most Western
women
elected
countries.
as prime ministers,
some aspects
So although
of Islam are incompatible with women's rights, the reality on the ground is
sometimes quite different. And South Asia is not an anomaly with regard to
women.
Islamic
In Afghanistan,
40 percent
tyranny,
liberated cities for women
braced
the Taliban's
before
version
its twenty-year
descent
women
and Kabul was
were
of all doctors
in all of Asia. Although
of Islam, most
by the sight of men in post-Taliban Kabul andMazar-e-Sharif
to music,
listen
movies,
dance,
shave,
and
of the most
bin Laden may have em
did not?as
Afghans
into chaos
one
was
confirmed
lining up towatch
and fly kites.
The real problem lies not in theMuslim world but in theMiddle East. When
you get to this region, you see in lurid color all the dysfunctions that people
conjure up when they think of Islam today. In Iran,6Egypt, Syria, Iraq, theWest
Bank, the Gaza Strip, and the Persian Gulf states, dictatorships pose in various
stripes and
damentalism
liberal democracy
far from reach. The allure of Islamic fun
appears
seems strong, whether
behind
closed doors or
spoken of urgently
declared
in fiery sermons
in mosques.
This is the land of flag burners,
fiery mul
went
to war inAfghanistan,
America
but not a single
lahs, and suicide bombers.
was linked to any terrorist
was
attack against Americans.
Afghan
Afghanistan
an Arab
was
the campground
from which
America.
army
battling
The Arab world
is an important
of Islam?its
heartland.
part of the world
But it is only one part and, in numerical terms, a small one. Of the 1.2 billion
Muslims in the world, only 260 million live inArabia. People in theWest often
use
term "Islamic,"
"Middle
Eastern,"
mean
same
not
do
the
they
thing.
the
and
"Arab"
interchangeably.
But
The Arab Mind
Today,
macy,
characterizations
reminders
61 often
Farsi,
mentalist
lump
not Arabic.
movement
of "the Oriental"
of the days when
ideas
Iran
But
have about them
such as phrenology
the whiff
passed
of illegiti
for science.
with Arab
countries.
It is technically
not one of them; Iranians
together
speak
Iran's Islamic Revolution
of 1979 gave an enormous
funda
fillip to the broader
the age-old
divide between
the two largest sects of Islam,
and, for now, has dulled
Sunni (mostly Arabs) and Shia (mostly Iranians).
ISLAM, DEMOCRACY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERALISM | 7
(And if "Orientals" are to include the Chinese and the Indians?as
what
then?then
to make
of
the stunning
one
extreme
to the other.
the "Orientalists,"
reotypes,
Those
have
of
these
they did
at science,
groups
of rationality?) But things have moved
math, and other such manifestations
from
success
who
been
have
resorted
to such
ste
cultural
by a new generation
succeeded
of politi
cally correct scholars who will not dare to ask why it is thatArab countries seem
to be stuck in a social and political milieu very different from that of the rest
of the world. Nor is there any self-criticism in thisworld. Most Arab writers are
more
concerned
with
defending
ments of dead Orientalists
the Arab
their
national
honor
against
the pronounce
than with trying to understand the predicament of
world.
The reality is impossible to deny. Of the twenty-two members of the Arab
not one
League,
ies in the world
liberal
senses,
is an electoral
whereas
63 percent
of all the count
democracy,
in some
some?Jordan,
Morocco?have,
although
recent history
do not. The region's
regimes, most
are. And
authoritarian
is bleak. Its last five decades are littered with examples of Arab crowds hailing
one
after
dictator
as a savior.
another
Gamal
in Egypt,
Nasser
Abdel
Mu'am
mer Qaddafi inLibya, and Saddam Hussein in Iraq all have been the recipients
of the heartfelt adulation of the Arab masses.
The few Arab scholars who venture into the cultural field point out that
Arab
structure
social
is deeply
authoritarian.
The
gat Korany writes that "Arab political discourse
of
the enlightened
dictator,
the heroic
vered head of family."7 The Lebanese
leader,
Egyptian-born
scholar
Bah
[is] littered with descriptions
the exceptional
the re
Za'im,
scholar Halim Barakat suggests that the
same patriarchal
relations
and values
that prevail
in the Arab
family seem also
to prevail at work, at school, and in religious,
and
social
political,
organizations.
ex
In all of these, a father figure
rules over others, monopolizing
authority,
pecting strict obedience,
and showing little tolerance of dissent. Projecting a
of responsibility
teachers,
image, those in positions
(as rulers, leaders,
or supervisors)
of
the
the
of
occupy
top
securely
pyramid
authority.
employers,
cannot be dethroned
in this position,
Once
the patriarch
except
by someone
paternal
who
is equally
patriarchal.8
The Failure
of Politics
It is difficult to conjure up the excitement in the world in the late 1950s as Nas
ser consolidated power inEgypt. For decades Arabs had been ruled by colonial
governors and decadent kings. Now they were achieving their dreams of inde
pendence,
and Nasser
was
their new
savior,
a modern
He had been born under British rule, inAlexandria,
man
for the postwar
a cosmopolitan
era.
city that
7
Bahgat Korany, "Arab Democratization: A Poor Cousin?" PS: Political Science and Politics 27,
no. 3 (September 1994), 511.
8Halim
Barakat, The Arab World: Society, Culture, and State (Berkeley: University of California
Press,
1993),
23.
8
I POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY
was more
than Arab.
Mediterranean
army, the most Westernized
and
suits
dark
fashionable
His
formative
segment of Egyptian
glasses,
society. With
cut a daring
he
had been
years
on
figure
in the
spent
his tailored
the world
stage.
"The Lion of Egypt" spoke for all the Arab world.
Nasser believed thatArab politics needed to be fired by ideas such as self
determination,
socialism,
were
ones.
also Western
was
a devoted
reader
and Arab
were
unity. These
Third World
Like
many
of the British New
modern
notions;
they
the time, Nasser
"national
charter"
of
leaders
Statesman.
of
His
1962 reads as if it had been written by left-wing intellectuals in Paris or London.
his most
Even
It was
spired.
in 1870?the
Germany
one nation.
of
idea
that
those
who
spoke
one
in
European
Italy and
first
language
then
should
be
fattened the Gulf states into golden geese, Egypt was the
Before wealth
leader
was
goal, pan-Arabism,
passionately
pursued
a version
of the nationalism
that had united
the Middle
East.
Thus,
Nasser's
vision
became
the region's.
Every
regime, from the Baathists and generals in Syria and Iraq to the conservative
monarchies
of the Gulf,
spoke
The Arab world
aping Nasser.
saw modernity
in an embrace
a defiance
with
The
colonial
terms
in similar
desperately
of Western
tones. They
to become
and
wanted
ideas,
remained
men.
even
simply
and it
in hand
of Western
power.
era of the late nineteenth
with
fascinated
Many
not
modern,
if it went hand
and early
twentieth
hopes of British friendship that were to be disappointed,
ria College
were
the West.
kings
raised
and generals
attended
Victo
learning the speech and manners of British gentle
inAlexandria,
then went
Future
centuries
but still Arab elites
to Oxford,
Cambridge,
or Sandhurst?a
tradition
that
is
still maintained by Jordan's royal family, although now they go to American
schools. After World War I, a new liberal age flickered briefly in the Arab
as ideas about
and society
the liberal
like
in places
gained currency
critics of kings and aristocrats
Lebanon,
Egypt,
were
more modern,
coarser
A
old
those
with
ideol
swept away along
regimes.
came
state
of
and
Arab
into
nationalism
socialism,
ogy
military
republicanism,
were
These
still
the
Baathists
and
ideas, however,
vogue.
basically Western;
to modernize
all wore
suits and wanted
their countries.
Nasserites
world,
opening
politics
Iraq, and Syria. But
The new politics and policies of theArab world went nowhere. For all their
chose bad ideas and implemented
them in worse ways.
energy Arab
regimes
and stagnation.
to the
Rather
than adjusting
Socialism
bureaucracy
produced
never
on.
failures
of central planning,
the economies
moved
of
Instead
really
moving
toward democracy,
World
"non-alignment"
as countries
and crumbled
nities.
An Arab
the republics calcified
became
"Cold War"
into dictatorships. Third
pro-Soviet
propaganda.
discovered
their own national
developed
between
Arab
interests
the countries
unity cracked
and opportu
led by pro-West
ern kings (the Gulf states, Jordan) and those ruled by revolutionary generals
(Syria, Iraq).Worst of all, Israel dealt theArabs a series of humiliating defeats
on the battlefield. Their swift, stunning defeat in 1967 was in some ways the
ISLAM, DEMOCRACY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERALISM | 9
turning point, revealing that behind the rhetoric and bombast lay societies that
were failing.When Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990, he destroyed the last rem
nants
of the pan-Arab
idea.
By the late 1980s, while the rest of the world was watching old regimes from
Moscow to Prague to Seoul to Johannesburg crack, the Arabs were stuck with
their corrupt dictators and aging kings. Regimes thatmight have seemed prom
ising in the 1960s were now exposed as tired kleptocracies, deeply unpopular
and thoroughly illegitimate. In an almost unthinkable reversal of a global pat
tern, almost
every Arab
country
are few places
in the world
There
today is less free than
one can
about which
The Failure
At
almost
universities
it was
forty
say that.
years
ago.
of Economics
or seminar on terrorism
every meeting
since September
11, 2001, whenever
organized
someone
by think
wanted
tanks
and
to sound
thoughtful and serious, he would say inmeasured tones, "We must fight not just
terrorism but also the roots of terrorism." This platitude has been invariably
followed by a suggestion for a new Marshall Plan to eradicate poverty in the
Muslim world. Who can be opposed to eradicating poverty? But the problem
an inconvenient
this diagnosis
is that it overlooks
fact: the al-Qaeda
ist network
is not made
of
the
and
up
poor
dispossessed.
with
terror
This is obviously true at the top; bin Laden was born into a family worth
more than $5 billion. But it is also true of many of his key associates, such as
his deputy, Zawahiri, a former surgeon in Cairo who came from the highest
ranks of Egyptian society. His father was a distinguished professor at Cairo
University, his grandfather the chief imam of Al Azhar (the most important
center of mainstream Islam in theArab world), and his uncle the first secretary
to
Mohammed
the pilot of the first plane
Atta,
League.
came
a
from
modern?and
Center,
moderate?Egyptian
and a doctor.
family. His father was a lawyer. He had two sisters, a professor
as had several of the other
in Hamburg,
Atta
himself
studied
terrorists. Even
of the Arab
general
Trade
hit the World
the
lower-level
al-Qaeda
recruits
appear
to have
been
educated,
middle-class
men. In this sense, John Walker Lindh, the California kid who dropped out of
life and
American
tuned
into
the Taliban,
was
not
that different
from many
of
his fellow fundamentalists. In fact, with his high school diploma against their
engineering degrees, one could say that he was distinctly undereducated by
comparison.
In fact, the breeding grounds of terror have been places that have seen the
greatest influx of wealth over the last thirty years. Of the nineteen hijackers,
were
the world's
It is
Saudi Arabia,
exporter.
largest petroleum
was at the heart of their anger. Even Egypt?the
other
that poverty
unlikely
a
not
al
international
for
feeder
Qaeda?is
poor country by
great
country
really
fifteen
standards.
from
Its per capita
income,
$3,690,
places
it in the middle
rank of nations,
and it has been growing at a decent 5 percent for the last decade. That may
I POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY
10
not be enough when
into account?its
you take population
growth
has
3
been
about
countries
around
many
growth
percent?but
men
hordes
of
who
doing far worse. Yet,
they have not spawned
population
are
the world
are willing
to
were
source
If
the
of
into Manhattan
terror,
poverty
skyscrapers.
or South Asia,
not the
Africa
should have come from sub-Saharan
drive
planes
the recruits
Middle East.
a powerful
to the crisis in the Arab
economic
dimension
not
is
that
wealth,
poverty.
get rich through natu
problem
Regimes
resources
never
or
to
ral
The Arab
tend
modernize,
develop,
gain legitimacy.
There
is, however,
The
world.
world is the poster child for this theory of trust-fund states. And this is true not
only for the big oil producers. Consider Egypt, which is a small but significant
exporter of oil and gas. It also earns $2 billion a year in transit fees paid by ships
crossing the Suez Canal, and gets another $2.2 billion a year in aid from the
United
In addition,
States.
home?from
percentage
it gets
large
in remittances?money
in the Gulf states. All
Egyptians who work
of its GDP
sums
from unearned
income.
Or
consider
sent
told, it gets a hefty
a progres
Jordan,
sive state that is liberalizing; it gets $1 billion a year in aid from the United
Although
is only $17 billion. Almost
from
one
that may
seem
States.
GDP
to be a small figure,
keep
inmind
that Jordan's
6 percent of its annual income is foreign aid
country.
or political
un
little economic
modernization.
The
to tax its people?and
of the need
the government
in
return provide
to
in
form
of
them
the
something
transparency,
accountability,
even
a
to
tax its people
shows
that
need
History
government's
representation.9
more
forces
it to become
and
of
its
responsive
representative
people. Middle
in
Eastern
ask
of
little
little
their
to them. An
return, give
and,
regimes
people
is that itmakes
other bad effect of natural-resource-derived
wealth
the govern
Easy money
earned
income
ment
police
9
means
relieves
to become
rich enough
is always money
There
for the
enough
repressive.
and the army. Saudi Arabia,
for example,
13
of
its
GDP
percent
spends
John Waterbury
has demonstrated
that,
far from
being
undertaxed,
the Middle
East
is the "most
heavily taxed of the developing regions." Using World Bank data from 1975 to 1985, Waterbury
that "tax revenues
showed
Latin
America
as a proportion
12 percent.
This
in several
corporations
averaged
petroleum
captive
taxed. On average,
of GNP
reflects
Middle
25 percent
for Middle
Eastern
averaged
not merely
the effect of the preponderant
can be easily
Eastern
which
countries,
states while
of
weight
and heavily
came from corporate
tax revenues
in the Middle
East
19 percent
of overall
profits
was
the corresponding
for
Africa
20
for
19
Asia
and for Latin Amer
percent,
percent,
figure
errs by neglecting
to disaggregate
ica 10 percent."
states by type and amount
Arab
But Waterbury
of
as Saudi
unearned
income.
If he had done so, he would
have found that the oil-producing
states?such
tax, while
and Kuwait?levy
few or no taxes, whereas
the larger non-oil-producing
states such as Egypt
taxes.
do
direct
indirect
the
substantial
and
unearned
income
that non-oil
Syria
levy
Although
to live on. Most
states receive
is significant,
it is not enough
of the unearned
in such
income
producing
Arabia
and
can
to the military.
So the absence
of demands
for democracy
in the Middle
East
straight
mass
to
mass
two
in
states
factors:
the
rich
and
in
the
up
separate
bribery
really
repression
ones.
are
But
income
into
the
both
of
that
flows
and
coffers
poorer
courtesy
governments'
requires
very little real economic
activity.
states
goes
be chalked
ISLAM, DEMOCRACY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERALISM | 11
on
as does Oman.
the military,
mates
of Iraqi military
at somewhere
spending
Kuwait
spends
spending before
around
25 and 40 percent
between
8 percent.
Various
esti
the Gulf War have put its military
of annual
an unusu
GDP,
ally high rate no doubt sustained, in part, by the Iran-IraqWar, but also by the
massive internal intelligence network maintained by Saddam Hussein and his
Baath
Party.
For
years,
would bring modernization.
and Kuwaitis
for
states
in the oil-rich
many
that
argued
stuffing
wealth
They pointed to the impressive appetites of Saudis
from McDonald's
things Western,
of modern
society?a
to Rolex
hamburgers
watches to Cadillac limousines. But importingWestern
the inner
enormous
their
free market,
goods is easy; importing
political
account
parties,
ability, the rule of law?is difficult and even dangerous for the ruling elites. The
Gulf
have
for example,
states,
gotten
a bastardized
version
of modernization,
with the goods and even theworkers imported from abroad. Little of theirmod
ernness
little
if the oil evaporated
is homegrown;
to show for decades
of wealth
except,
these states would have
tomorrow,
an
perhaps,
overdeveloped
capacity
for leisure.
Fear
of Westernization
There is a sense of pride and fall at the heart of the Arab problem. Itmakes
economic advance impossible and political progress fraught with difficulty.
it has been almost all good for
America thinks of modernity as all good?and
America.
Each
But
path
for the Arab
world,
modernity
followed?socialism,
secularism,
has been
one
failure
nationalism?has
after
another.
turned
a
into
dead end. People often wonder why theArab countries will not try secularism.
In fact, for most of the last century, most
of them did. Now
with
the failure of secularism
failure of their governments
Arabs
associate
the
and of the Western
path. The Arab world is disillusioned with theWest when it should be disillu
sioned
with
its own
leaders.
The new, accelerated globalization
Arab
world
that flourished in the 1990s has hit the
are open enough
in a strange way.
Its societies
but not so open that they can ride the wave. Arabs
modernity,
shows, eat the fast foods,
and drink
the sodas,
but
they do not
to be disrupted
by
see the television
see genuine
liber
alization in their societies, with ordinary opportunities and dynamism?just the
same elites controlling things. Globalization
in the Arab world is the critic's
a
slew ofWestern products and billboards with little
caricature of globalization,
itmeans
else. For the elites in Arab
societies,
of them, it is also an unsettling
phenomenon
base of power.
of fascination
and repulsion
This mixture
has utterly
disoriented
the Arab
world.
Young
more
that
with
men,
things to buy. But for some
threatens
their comfortable
the West?with
often
better
modernity?
educated
than
their parents, leave their traditional villages to find work. They arrive in the
noisy,
crowded
cities
of Cairo,
Beirut,
or Damascus,
or go
to work
in the oil
I POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY
12
states. (Almost 10 percent of Egypt's working population has worked
at some
states
Gulf
In their
point.)
unveiled
they
great
in the
in
disparities
they see
in public
and
in cafes, and working
places,
taking buses, eating
of modern
face to face with the contradictions
life,
come
them. They
alongside
world,
see
effects of modernity; most unsettlingly,
wealth and the disorienting
women,
new
seeking the wealth of the new world but the tradition and certainty of the old.
The Rise
was
Nasser
a reasonably
devout
of Religion
Muslim,
but he had no
interest
in mixing
reli
gion with politics, which struck him asmoving backward. This became painfully
to the small
apparent
Islamic
parties
that supported
most important one, theMuslim Brotherhood,
often
violently,
by
1950s. Nasser
the early
rise to power.
Nasser's
The
began opposing him vigorously,
cracked
down
on
it ferociously,
im
prisoning more than a thousand of its leaders and executing six of them in 1954.
One of those jailed was Sayyid Qutb, a frailman with a fiery pen, who wrote a
called
in prison
of
modern
beginning
book
on
Signposts
Islam
political
the Road,
or what
which
is often
in some ways marked
the
called Islamic fundamen
talism.10
In his book, Qutb condemned Nasser as an impious Muslim and his regime
as un-Islamic.
Indeed, he went
envisioned
Qutb
larly flawed.
lamic principles,
a core
goal
Arab
on, almost every modern
regime was simi
a better, more
virtuous
polity based on strict Is
of orthodox
since the 1880s.11 As the re
Muslims
East grew more distant, oppressive,
gimes of the Middle
decades
fundamentalism's
in the
and hollow
It flourished
because
following Nasser,
appeal grew.
the Muslim
Brotherhood
and organizations
like it at least tried to give people
a sense of meaning
a
no leader
in
and purpose
in
world,
something
changing
the Middle
East tried to do. In his seminal work, The Arab Predicament,
which
best
explains
fundamentalist
contrast
to leave
them
the fracture
call has
of Arab
resonance
political
because
"The
culture, Fouad Ajami
explains,
...
to participate
it invited men
[in]
to spectators
and asks them
citizens
to a political
that reduces
culture
things to their rulers. At a time when
to a tradition
that reduces
it connects
the future
is uncertain,
Fundamentalism
bewilderment."
gave Arabs
who were dissatisfied with their lot a powerful language of opposition.
On that score, Islam had little competition. The Arab world is a political
desert
with
10
In many
Ala Maududi.
who
is read
11
Maududi
no real political
ways,
Qutb
parties,
the original
fundamentalist
an admirer
of Maududi
was
the
Islamic
was
and
and few pathways
Qutb's
contemporary,
his writings
translated
for dissent.
the Pakistani
into Arabic.
scholar
But
Abul
it is Qutb
world
today.
as the pagan
in the same manner
could be viewed
tribes
powers
were
a
so too should
at the dawn
Just as the pagans
and resisted
fought
by the Prophet,
be
Muslims
their
colonial
Maududi's
and
Qutb
oppressors.
jihad
waged
by
against
adopted
reasoning
it to propose
extended
governments.
jihad against
irreligious Muslim
Sayyid Qutb, Milestones
(India
to Qutb
Muslim
American
Trust Publications,
introduction
is Gilles
Kepel,
1990). The best
napolis:
Extremism
throughout
no free press,
argued
of Islam.
in Egypt:
that
the colonial
The Prophet
and Pharaoh
(Berkeley:
University
of California
Press,
1985).
ISLAM, DEMOCRACY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERALISM | 13
As a result, the mosque became the place to discuss politics. As the only place
that cannot
inMuslim
be banned
collected
the regimes
in these lands, the language
tion
toward
came,
it is where
all the hate and opposi
societies,
of opposition
and grew. The
be
language
of religion.
This
to be combustible. Religion,
politics has proven
of religion
combination
and
at least the religion of the
stresses moral
and Islam),
abso
(Judaism,
Christianity,
The result has been a ruthless, win
is all about compromise.
politics
toward political
life.
attitude
Abrahamic
traditions
lutes. But
ner-take-all
Islamic fundamentalism got a tremendous boost in 1979 when Ayatollah
Ruhollah Khomeini toppled the staunchly pro-American shah of Iran. The Ira
nian Revolution demonstrated that a powerful ruler could be taken on by
It also revealed
the society.
of
forces
progress?for
benign
within
groups
seemingly
in a developing
education?can
example,
how,
even
society,
add
to the
turmoil. Until the 1970s most Muslims in theMiddle East were illiterate and
lived in villages and towns. They practiced a kind of village Islam that had
adapted
itself
to local
cultures
tolerant,
these
villages
often
and
these
societies
were
human
saints, went
worshipped
hymns, and cherished art?all
however,
to normal
technically disallowed
being
urbanized.
People
desires.
Pluralistic
to shrines,
sang
and
religious
in Islam. By the 1970s,
had begun
moving
out
of the villages to search for jobs in towns and cities. Their religious experience
in a specific place with
local customs
and traditions.
At
to read, and they discovered
that a new Islam
the same time, they were
learning
a
new
was being preached
of
and teachers.
writers,
by
generation
preachers,
was
no
longer
rooted
This was an abstract faith not rooted in historical experience but literal and
Islam of the high church as opposed to the Islam of the
puritanical?the
street
fair.
In Iran, Ayatollah
Khomeini
sette. Even when he was exiled
uted
Iran and became
used
in Paris
a powerful
technology?the
in the 1970s, his sermons
audiocas
were
distrib
to the shah's repres
of opposition
a new, angry, austere
Islam in which
and the unbeliever
is to be
Satan,"
the vehicle
throughout
regime. But they also taught people
is evil, America
is the "Great
the West
was
not
of Islam as a political
in using
alone
the language
Khomeini
fought.
or
tool. Intellectuals,
disillusioned
by the half-baked
overly
rapid moderniza
were
their
world
into
books
tion that was
turmoil,
throwing
writing
against
sive
and
the modern
Iranian man?half
half
Western,
calling
often writing
Fashionable
Eastern?"rootless."
from the comfort
intellectuals,
or Paris, would
criticize American
secularism
and consumerism
and
of London
across
an
As
Islamic alternative.
theories
like these spread
the Arab
endorse
"Westoxification"
not to the poorest
of the poor, for whom Westernization
world,
they appealed
was magical,
to the
food and medicine;
since it meant
rather,
they appealed
educated hordes entering the cities of the Middle East or seeking education
and jobs in theWest. They were disoriented and ready to be taught that their
disorientation
would
be
solved
by recourse
to a new,
true
Islam.
j POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY
14
In the Sunni
rise
the
world,
of
Islamic
was
fundamentalism
and
shaped
quickened by the fact that Islam is a highly egalitarian religion. This for most
an empowering
But
has proved
call for people who felt powerless.
no
some
to
Muslim
that
whether
really has the authority
question
was
an
In the Middle
there
under
is a "proper Muslim."
informal
Ages,
of its history
it also means
one
that a trained
standing
to pronounce
thority
the ulama,
had the au
community,
But
fundamentalist
from
thinkers,
scholarly-clerical
on such matters.12
and Qutb to their followers, have muscled
Pakistani Maulana Maududi
in on
as to whether
that territory. They
pronounce
loudly and continuously
judgment
are
In
Muslims."
excommunicate
those
whose
Islam
effect,
they
"good
people
their own. This process
has terrified
the Muslim
world. Leaders
does not match
take on the rising
dare not
tide of Islamists.
Intellectual
and social
elites,
widely
line, are also
discredited by their slavish support of the official government
to speak out against a genuinely
free-thinking
clergy. As a result, moder
are loath to criticize or debunk
ate Muslims
the fanaticism
of the fundamental
scared
in Northern
like the moderates
if
about their safety
Ireland,
worry,
a
as
as
was
Even
venerated
Mahfouz
their mind.
speak
figure
Naguib
ists. Some
they
stabbed in Egypt for his mildly critical comments about the Islamists.
is this more
Nowhere
true than
in the moderate
monarchies
of the Persian
Gulf, particularly Saudi Arabia. The Saudi regime has played a dangerous
attention
and politi
away from its spotty economic
game: it has tried to deflect
to
extreme
cal record by allowing
free reign to its most
clerics, hoping
gain legit
Saudi Arabia's
educational
is run by medieval
system
imacy by association.
minded
bureaucrats.
Over
the past three decades,
the Saudis?mostly
religious
trusts?have
funded
schools
and centers
through private
religious
(madrasas)
that spread Wahhabism
for
(a rigid, desert variant of Islam that is the template
In the past thirty years, Saudi
around
the world.
Islamic fundamentalists)
out tens of thousands
funded madrasas
of half-educated,
have churned
fanati
most
cal Muslims
who
view
the modern
in this world-view
America
world
is almost
and non-Muslims
always
with
great
suspicion.
evil.
uniquely
This exported fundamentalism has infected not just other Arab
but
outside
countries
the Arab
It often
world.
carries
societies
it a distinctly
with
paro
chial Arab political program. Thus, Indonesian Muslims, who twenty years ago
did not
cause.
know
The
where
Arab
influence
the Islamic world
buildings,
are
Palestine
But
Hindu,
Javan, Russian.
as Indonesia
and Malaysia
was,
extends
even
today militant
into the realm
has always mixed Arab
are now
local cultures
because
they
are
in their
of
support
of architecture.
influences
its
In its
local ones?
with
in places
ignored
being
seen as insufficiently
such
Islamic
(meaning Arab).
Pakistan
ism. During
12
On
has had
a particularly
the eleven-year
the power
of
the medieval
reign
ulama,
bad experience
of General
Zia
see Richard
(New York: Columbia University Press, 1994).
W.
with
exported
ul-Haq
Bulliet,
Islam:
fundamental
the die
(1977-1988),
The
View
from
the Edge
ISLAM, DEMOCRACY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERALISM | 15
tator decided that he needed allies, since he had squashed political dissent and
opposition
parties.
He
scores
of madrasas
them
found
his political allies. With
local
who
fundamentalists,
war
The Afghan
These
"jihadis"
the country.
communism.
throughout
eager to fight godless
Without
Saudi money
zealots,
Arabia.
in the
became
the aid of Saudi financiers and functionaries, he set up
and men,
the Taliban
attracted
religious
came mostly
from
not have existed,
would
nor would Pakistan have become the hotbed of fundamentalism that it is today.
Zia's embrace of Islam brought him a kind of legitimacy, but it has eroded the
social fabric of Pakistan. The country is now full of armed radicals, who first
supported the Taliban, then joined in the struggle inKashmir, and are now try
ing to undermine
the secular
regime
of General
Pervez
infected the legal and political system with medieval
Musharraf.
role of women,
and the evils of modern
banking.
is not alone. A similar process
has been at work
subordinate
Pakistan
diverse as Yemen,
have
They
ideas of blasphemy,
Indonesia, and the Philippines. During
the
as
in countries
the 1980s and 1990s,
a kind
of competition
Iran and Saudi Arabia,
between
the two most
emerged
see
to
states
in the Middle
who would
be the greater
East,
religious
religious
As a result, what were once small, extreme
in the Islamic World.
strains
power
of Islam, limited to parts of the Middle
world?in
the globalization
of radical
The Road
East, have taken root around the
Islam.
to Democracy
For themost part, the task of reform in theMiddle East must fall to the peoples
of the region. No one can make
democracy,
in these societies without
their own search,
Western
world
mously.
The
and the United
in general,
is the dominant
States
United
root
take
But
the
can help enor
in particular,
States
in the Middle
East; every
power
as the most
critical
tie they have.
with Washington
with Israel ensure American
the
and
Oil, strategic
ties,
unique U.S.
relationship
to
will
aid the Egyptian
involvement.
continue
the
regime, protect
Washington
between
Israel and the Palestinians.
Saudi monarchy,
and broker negotiations
country
views
or secularism
liberalism,
and
achievements.
efforts,
its relations
The question really is, should it not ask for something in return? By not pushing
these
the United
regimes,
things stay as they are?to
States
opt
would
be making
for stability. This
a conscious
decision
is a worthwhile
goal,
to let
except
that the current situation in theMiddle East is highly unstable. Even if viewed
from
a strategic
perspective,
it is in America's
immediate
security
interests
to
try tomake the regimes of theMiddle East less prone to breeding fanatical and
terrorist
As
Middle
movements.
opposition
a start, the West must
recognize
seek
East?at
least not yet. We
not
that
it does
first
constitutional
seek
democracy
liberalism,
in the
which
is
very different. Clarifying our immediate goals will actually make them more
easily attainable. The regimes in theMiddle East will be delighted to learn that
we will not try to force them to hold elections tomorrow. They will be less
16
I POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY
to know
that we will continually
array of other
press them on a whole
pleased
to end its governmental
must do more
and nongov
issues. The Saudi monarchy
now
extreme
is
ernmental
for
the kingdom's
second
Islam, which
support
to the rest of
export
so be
largest
speech,
it. It must
If this offends
the world.
in its religious
rein
advocates
and educational
of pure free
and force
leaders
them to stop flirting with fanaticism. In Egypt, we must ask President Mubarak
to insist
the
that
state-owned
press
its anti-American
drop
and
anti-Semitic
rants and begin opening itself up to other voices in the country. Some of these
be worse
will
voices
than
those
we
hear
some
but
now,
will
be better.
Most
to speak about what
will begin
in these countries
important,
people
truly con
or
cerns them?not
status
the
of
American
in
Jerusalem
the Gulf,
only
policies
live
under
the
and
confront.
but also the regimes
they
they
politics
for much
the great excuse
Israel has become
of the Arab world,
the way
to deflect
for regimes
their own
from
attention
with
disagreements
foreign policy
but they do not have the sometimes
one
failures.
poisonous
Other
countries
of China
another?think
Japan?
the Israeli-Arab
di
of
quality
have
and
vide. Israel's occupation of theWest Bank and Gaza Strip has turned into the
great cause of the Arab world. But even if fomented by cynical Arab rulers,
this cause
is now
a reality
that cannot
be
ignored.
is a new Arab
There
street
in theMiddle East, built on Al-Jazeera and Internet chat sites. And the talk is
all about the plight of the Palestinians. If unaddressed, this issue will only grow
in importance,
ensuring
infecting
permanent
America's
insecurity
relations
for Israel.
with
The
the entire Muslim
United
States
should
world
and
maintain
its unyielding support for the security of Israel. But it should also do what is in
is to press hard to
which
itself, Israel, and the Palestinians,
a viable
the
state.
that
Israel
and
Palestinians
broker
provides
Peace between
will not solve the problem
of Arab
the Israelis and Palestinians
some
ease
but
it
would
of
the
tensions
between
the
Arab
world
dysfunction,
and the West.
the best
interest
of
a settlement
re
is economic
and political
reform. Economic
lasting solution
come first, for they are fundamental.
forms must
Even
the problems
though
are
not
the
Middle
East
their
solution
lie in eco
economic,
may
facing
purely
as we have seen, is the surest path to creat
nomics. Moving
toward capitalism,
state and a genuine middle
class. And
ing a limited, accountable
just as in Spain,
The
more
South Korea,
and Mexico,
economic
reform means
Chile, Taiwan,
Portugal,
rule of law (capitalism
the beginnings
of a genuine
needs
openness
contracts),
access
to the world,
to information,
the develop
and, perhaps most
important,
ment
class. If you talk with Arab
of a business
businessmen
and women,
they
want
to change. They have a stake in openness,
in rules, and in
the old system
stability.
stay
They
trapped
want
their
in factionalism
societies
and move
to modernize
and war.
Instead
forward
of the romance
rather
of ideology,
than
they
seek the reality of material progress. In the Middle East today, there are too
many
people
cal plans.
consumed
by political
dreams
and
too
few
interested
in practi
ISLAM, DEMOCRACY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERALISM | 17
There is a dominant business class in theMiddle East, but it owes its posi
to oil or to connections
tion
ism, not
and
capitalism,
business
entrepreneurial
to the ruling families.13
its political
effects
remain
class would
be
the
Its wealth
most
single
is that of feudal
as well.
feudal
A
important
genuinely
force for
change in theMiddle East, pulling along all others in itswake. If culture mat
ters,
been
is one
this
it would
place
full of traders, merchants,
culture
help. Arab
and businessmen.
oldest institution in the Middle East. And
to business?Mohammed
receptive
for thousands
The
bazaar
of years
is probably
has
the
Islam has been historically highly
was
himself
a businessman.
the
Ultimately,
battle for reform is one thatMiddle Easterners will have to fight, which iswhy
to be some
there needs
these societies
that advocates
and benefits
group within
reform.
and political
an idea as itmight
This is not as fantastic
sound. Already
stirrings of genu
can
seen
ine economic
be
in
of
the
Middle
East.
Jordan has be
parts
activity
from
economic
come amember of theWorld Trade Organization (WTO), signed a free-trade
pact with the United States, privatized key industries, and even encouraged
cross-border
bership.
business
Egypt
ventures
has made
with
some
Israel.
small
Saudi Arabia
progress
on
is seeking WTO mem
to reform. Among
the road
the oil-rich countries, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates are trying to
wean themselves of their dependence on oil. Dubai, part of the United Arab
Emirates, has already gotten oil down to merely 8 percent of itsGDP and has
publicly
announced
its intention
of becoming
a trading
and banking
center?
the "Singapore of theMiddle East." (It would do well to emulate Singapore's
tolerance
of its ethnic and religious minorities.)
Even
Saudi Arabia
recognizes
can provide
one
its oil economy
for
every three of its young men
only
job
into the work force. In Algeria,
President
Abdelaziz
Bouteflika
coming
desper
wants
to
investment
his
tattered
economy.
ately
foreign
repair
one place to press hardest
If we could choose
to reform,
it should be Egypt.
a
more
Jordan
has
and
Saudi
Arabia
ismore
criti
ruler,
Although
progressive
that
cal because of its oil, Egypt is the intellectual soul of the Arab world. If Egypt
were
to progress
more pow
and politically,
it would
demonstrate
economically
or
than
Islam
that
is
with
and
any essay
erfully
speech
compatible
modernity,
can thrive in today's world.
In East Asia,
success
that Arabs
Japan's economic
a powerful
others
in
to and followed.
that
the
looked
proved
example
region
The Middle
There
East
needs
is another
one
possible
success
such homegrown
candidate
for the role:
story.
a
it became
Iraq. Before
of the most
liter
advanced,
for Saddam's
playpen
megalomania,
Iraq was one
It has oil, but more
in the region.
it has
ate, and secular countries
importantly,
one
water.
is
the
of
land
of
the
oldest
in
civilizations
the
world.
Iraq
river-valley
Its capital, Baghdad, is home to one of the wonders of the ancient world, the
Hanging Gardens of Babylon, and has been an important city for thousands of
13
There
Arabia.
are
some
exceptions
to this
rule
in Gulf
states
such
as Dubai,
Bahrain,
and
even
Saudi
I POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY
18
years. Iraq in the 1950s was a country with a highly developed civil society, with
and architects,
of whom were women.
Now
doctors,
many
engineers,
a
dam has been dislodged,
the United
States must
in
serious
engage
that Sad
long-term
project of nation building, because Iraq could well become the first major Arab
to combine Arab
culture with
country
liberal politics,
and a modern
outlook
The
Spreading
democracy
Importance
is tough.
But
economic
on
dynamism,
the world. And
tolerance,
religious
success
is infectious.
of Constitutionalism
that does
not mean
that
the West?in
par
ticular the United States?should
stop trying to assist the forces of liberal de
Nor
it
does
mocracy.
imply accepting blindly authoritarian regimes as the least
bad
It does, however,
the need for a certain
suggest
sophistication.
over the last decade
into elections
countries
has been,
in
as
In
to
went
countries
such
which
the
Bosnia,
counterproductive.
alternative.
The
to press
haste
cases,
within
polls
many
a year of the Dayton
peace
accords,
elections
only made
more
pow
erful precisely the kinds of ugly ethnic forces that have made itmore difficult
to build genuine liberal democracy there. The ethnic thugs stayed in power and
kept the courts packed and the police well fed. The old system has stayed in
real change
for years, perhaps
In East Timor
decades.
and Af
delaying
a longer period of state-building
a five
has proved useful.
In general,
ghanistan,
of
and
institutional
should
transition,
reform,
year period
political
development
In a country with strong regional,
national multiparty
elections.
ethnic,
precede
or religious
are
divisions?like
is crucial.
It ensures
that elections
Iraq?this
place,
held
after
begun
civic institutions,
to function. As with
Although
and the economy
political
parties,
in
life, timing matters.
everything
courts,
have
all
it is easy to impose elections on a country, it ismore difficult to
on a society. The process
liberalism
of genuine
liberaliza
push constitutional
an election
in which
is only one step, is gradual
tion and democratization,
and
term.
and
this, governments
long
Recognizing
nongovernmental
organizations
are
increasingly
promoting
an array
tional liberalism in developing
of measures
designed
to bolster
countries. The National Endowment
constitu
for De
free markets,
labor movements,
and political
mocracy
promotes
independent
The
for
U.S.
International
funds
parties.
Agency
Development
independent
In the end, however,
elections
If a country holds
trump everything.
judiciaries.
elections, Washington and the world will tolerate a great deal from the resulting
government, as they did with Russia's Boris Yeltsin, Kyrgystan's Askar
In an age of images and symbols,
and Argentina's
Carlos Menem.
elec
Akayev,
on film. But how to do you televise
tions are easy to capture
the rule of law?
there is life after elections,
for the people who
live there.
Yet,
especially
as one
the
absence
of
free
and
fair
elections
should
be
viewed
Conversely,
flaw,
not
the definition
nance, but they are not
be judged by yardsticks
are an important
of tyranny. Elections
virtue of gover
the only virtue.
It ismore
that
governments
important
to constitutional
related
liberalism.
Economic,
civil,
ISLAM, DEMOCRACY, AND CONSTITUTIONAL LIBERALISM | 19
are at the core of human
liberties
and religious
ernment with
limited
steadily
democracy
be branded a dictatorship. Despite
tries
as Singapore,
such
If a gov
and dignity.
autonomy
not
these
it
should
freedoms,
expands
the limited political choice they offer, coun
and Morocco
Jordan,
Malaysia,
provide
a better
envi
ronment for the life, liberty, and happiness of citizens than do the dictatorships
or the illiberal
in Iraq and Libya
democracies
of Venezuela,
Russia,
or Ghana.
the pressures of global capitalism can push the process of liberalization
And
as they have
forward,
in China.
Markets
can work
and morals
together.
The most difficult task economically is reforming the trust-fund states. It
has proved nearly impossible to wean them of their easy money. In 2002, the
World Bank began experimenting with a potentially pathbreaking model in the
central
African
nies were
wary
country of Chad. Chad has major
to extract
of major
investments
oil fields, but
and transport
foreign compa
the oil because
of the country's history of political instability. The World Bank agreed to step
in, bless
the project,
and
put
certain
the government
money
by ExxonMobil?to
national consortium?led
in place
loan
conditions.
Chad's
to partner
a multi
with
get the oil flowing. But it also
parliament
had
a law guarantee
to pass
ing that 80 percent of the oil revenues would be spent on health, education, and
5 percent would
be spent on locals near the oil fields, and
infrastructure,
account
10 percent would
for future generations.
be put into an escrow
That
to spend as itwishes.
5 percent
leaves the government
To ensure that the system
rural
works in practice as well as in theory, the bank required that all oil revenues be
in an offshore
deposited
account
that
ismanaged
by an independent
oversight
committee (made up of some of Chad's leading citizens). It is too soon to tell
if thismodel works, but if it does, it could be copied elsewhere. Even in coun
tries that do not need theWorld Bank's help, it could have a demonstration
a method
revenues
effect. The Chad model
by which natural-resource
provides
a blessing
can become
are.
for countries
rather than the curse they currently
we
need to revive constitutionalism.
One effect of the overempha
Finally,
is given to creating
consti
imaginative
as
was
it
understood
Constitutionalism,
by its
as
such
and
is a
Madison,
exponents,
greatest
eighteenth-century
Montesquieu
to prevent
the accumula
system of checks and balances
complicated
designed
sis of pure democracy
tutions for transitional
is that
little effort
countries.
tion of power and the abuse of office. This is accomplished not by simply writing
up a list of rights but by constructing a system in which government will not
violate
those
as Madison
and empowered
because,
groups must be included
rights. Various
to
must
counteract
"ambition
be
made
ambition."
explained,
Constitutions
were
also meant
to tame
not simply democratic but also deliberative
is an example
constitution
structure.
It secures
power
the passions
of the public,
of an unusually
crafted,
for minorities,
both those
somewhat
undemocratic
regionally
based,
the Zulus, and those that are dispersed, such as the whites.
increased
chances
that country's
of success
social catastrophes.
and harrowing
creating
government. The South African
as a democracy,
such as
In doing so it has
despite
its poverty
I POLITICAL SCIENCE QUARTERLY
20
Unfortunately,
the rich variety of unelected bodies, indirect voting, federal
so many
and checks
and balances
that characterized
of the for
arrangements,
are now regarded
mal
and informal
constitutions
of Europe
with
suspicion.
the Weimar
What
could be called
after Germany's
beauti
syndrome?named
which
nevertheless
failed to avert fascism?has
constitution,
as
constitutions
that cannot make much
regard
simply paperwork
constructed
fully
made
people
difference
(as if any political system inGermany would have easily weathered
social revolution,
the Great Depression,
and hyperinflation).
defeat,
military
are seen as inauthentic,
Procedures
that inhibit direct democracy
the
muzzling
on
we
see
same
around
the
voice of the people.
variations
the
world,
Today,
theme.
majoritarian
in most
democratizing
Of
But
course, cultures
of government.
the trouble
with
these winner-take-all
the winner
countries,
really does take
will require
and
different
societies
vary,
systems
all.
different
is that,
frame
is a plea not for the wholesale
of any one
works
adoption
a
more
model
of government
but rather for
of liberal
variegated
conception
one
both
in
that
words
that
Genuine
democ
democracy,
emphasizes
phrase.
a
not
two
is
that
balances
these
but
other
forces?what
racy
fragile system
just
This
called "intermediate
associations"?to
in the end, a majes
create,
Tocqueville
an intellectual
tic clockwork.
this system requires
task of recov
Understanding
to
the
central
Western
liberal
constitutional
and to
tradition,
ering
experience
of good government
the
the development
world.
throughout
This recovery will be incomplete ifwe limit it in our minds to what is hap
pening in faraway countries that are troubled and poor and utterly different
from
is a work
Democracy
between
and
democracy
own
a
in the West's
that flourished
form,
past. In very different
is growing
in the Western
It ismost widely
in
world.
prevalent
abroad
one
and
the prosperous,
democratic
as well as at home. The
in particular:
the United
States
West.
tension
of America.
in progress,
liberalism
is
it still exists
one
country