Amr Hamzawy Libri

In recent decades, Islamist political movements in many Arab countries have strategically invested in a political process that was stacked heavily against them.

Pluralism in the Arab world has not yet matured into functional democratic politics. While ruling establishments, Islamist movements, and secular parties have introduced a much greater degree of pluralism into Arab societies, the imbalance of power and interdependence among these actors limits both the degree of political diversity and its effectiveness at bringing about reforms. The Arab world is likely to grapple with political apathy, low voter turnout, dwindling membership in registered parties, and shrinking constituencies for the foreseeable future. Even the Islamists, who demonstrated great ability to organize and gain followers in the past, have begun showing signs of decreasing popularity. Getting to Political Actors in the Arab World explores the balance of power between the disparate political forces of the Arab world. The essays in this volume examine the characteristics of the major political actors in great detail and assess the weaknesses of the secular parties. They also illustrate the complexities of Islamist participation in the political processes of several Arab countries—pointing out both similarities and differences. Finally, the authors evaluate how incumbent Arab regimes have been able to maintain their grip on power in spite of their claims that they support political and social reform.

The internal Arab, Iranian and Israeli debates on civil society in the 1980s and 1990s have only partly found their way into Western studies on the issue. An analysis of the discursive structures of the local debates, which represents the major objective of the current edited volume, may help shifting the nexus of the academic discussion to Middle Eastern perceptions and actors. Amr Hamzawy analyses the Arab sociological and political discussion on civil society, depending on the intellectual literature of the last ten years. Asghar Schirazi distinguishes in his contribution between three central intellectual currents in Iran: Islamist, leftist, and liberal, each of which can be further subdivided. The article of Angelika Timm explores the historical development of the Israeli civil society and addresses some important spheres of civil activities. All authors have been working over the last four years together in a research project on “Civil Society and Processes of Transformation in the Middle East” at the Center for Middle Eastern Politics of the Free University of Berlin under the supervision of Friedemann Buettner, chairman of the centre.