Religion and Secularism in Turkey: The Dilemma of the Directorate of Religious Affairs

The current study aims to examine the Directorate of Religious Affairs (Diyanet) from its formation in 1924 through to the present day, and attempts to place the Diyanet appropriately in the context of the prevailing perplexity over state–religion relations in Turkey. It questions Turkish-style secularism and examines the responsibilities, power, and limits of the Diyanet. The Diyanet has undertaken responsibility for making the state's control over religion visible through sermons and publications, helping the state gain legitimacy among religious people. Meanwhile, it has been the Achilles' heel of the republican regime in the sense that religious people found employment in it and some considered this as a way to influence the laicist state from inside.     

Enlightenment by Fiat: Secularization and Democracy in Turkey

This essay examines the relationship between Indian and Australasian soldiers and colonial Egyptians from 1914–19. Drawing upon memoirs, letters, and the work of Nagib Mahfuz, I argue that the First World War reaffirmed British military rule in Egypt and also posed a danger to it in the form of disorderly soldiers. Because British officials feared the unruly conduct of their troops they promoted manly ideals of self-control to facilitate their control over Egyptian society. Uncontrolled spectacles of wartime violence were therefore critical to the ways in which the British Army deployed masculine behaviour in the service of the colonial state.     

Money, Elections, and Democracy in Brazil

Brazis 1993 law requiring candidates to report their campaign contributions has generated a new source of data to explore the supposition that Brazilian elections are extraordinarily expensive. An examination of these data from Brazis 1994 and 1998 general elections reveals that most money for Brazilian electoral campaigns comes from business sources and that leftist candidates have extremely limited access to such financing. The effect on democracy is that Brazis largely unregulated campaign finance system tends to decrease the scope of interest representation.     

Democracy,Power and Indigeneity

This article identifies a theoretical nexus between indigeneity and liberal democracy in three post‐colonial contexts. Like democracy, the politics of indigeneity asks questions and makes assumptions about where power ought to lie and how it ought to be shared in relation to political inclusion and national sovereignty. The interaction of indigeneity with democracy highlights the limitations of liberal theory as well as the opportunities it provides to meet indigenous claims and conceptions of justice. Exploring the ideological tensions and commonalities between democracy and indigeneity allows a contrast, in comparative context, of the proposition that in Fiji, for example, democracy is “a foreign flower” unsuited to the local environment with the argument that liberal representative democracy can, in fact, mediate power in favour of an inclusive national polity.