Party and governance in the Arab republics

Abstract

By focusing on political memoirs as an important source, the article deals with the ruling party and governance in the Arab republics, whether they had a one-party system such as Iraq and Syria, or a multi-party system such as Egypt and Tunisia. However, one country among the republics, Libya, annulled political parties and parliament and created its own unique system of governance. Through memoirs of party members, parliamentary opponents, and ministers, the article analyses the substantial role of the ruling parties in perpetuating the regimes. While the triangular relationship between the leadership, the party, and the bureaucracy differed from one republic to another, the overall structure of governance did not vary widely, except in the case of Libya.     

The voice and loyalty of business in Kuwait: merchant politics in times of contention

According to the classic rentier state theory literature, the political activity of Kuwaiti merchants effectively ceased after the government acquired oil rents. More recent works explain business alliances with the government through the competition for resources between the capitalist class and the population at large. This article argues that the merchants’ political position vis-à-vis the ruling powers has not been consistent and has shifted between ‘voice’ and ‘loyalty’. To explain the choice of political action by the Kuwaiti business community the article compares the merchants’ role in two major contentious events—the popular uprising of 2011 and the 1989 pro-democracy movement. Despite the similarities between them, in 1989 prominent business figures were in the vanguard of opposition, while after 2011 they chose to re-emerge as government allies. The comparison suggests that the shift from ‘voice’ to ‘loyalty’ can be explained by the changing political field. I contend that the rise of new social forces and new types of political opposition antagonized business and forced it to side with the government in order to pursue its vital rent-seeking interests.     

Contested governance between politics and professionalism in Taiwan

This essay critically examines the evolution of the environmental impact assessment (EIA) in Taiwan. The ‘American-style’ EIA was originally introduced in Taiwan as an economic policy-making instrument. During the 1980s, grassroots environmental protests rose. The state first met the popular opposition by denying their professional status, and then sought a more peaceful resolution by upgrading the EIA. In 1994, owing to the combined effects of more accountable parliamentary and environmentalists' lobbying, the EIA was finally codified. Democratization also made the codified EIA more powerful and professional, as environmentalists preferred. The latter part of this essay examines the actual practice of the EIA since 1995, with special attention to some controversial cases. The current EIA failed the proclaimed standard of “science and objectivity,” as politics lurked in the disguise of professionalism.     

Public interest politics,corporate governance and company regulation in Germany and Britain

This article introduces a systematic framework for evaluating the impact of public interest issues on companies through regulation and mandatory corporate governance requirements that change the nature of the firm. It finds that public interest issues that apply to the firm are becoming more important in both Britain and Germany, despite their disparate historical patterns of dealing with the company. European integration and national politics are both expanding the range of issues companies must deal with, even under the competitive pressures of globalisation, while national institutions and politics continue to dominate the manner in which most firms confront public interest issues.     

Eritrea's politics and governance crisis as political culture epiphenomena

The emergence of Eritrea as a new nation apparently required the government to transcend inherited forms of identity. It has tried to do this by forging a new political culture out of collective memories of war, but this attempt was only partially successful. Largely steeped in political symbolism and populist rhetoric of sacrifice and self-reliance, the regime's attempt to socialise the Eritrean society with valorised revolutionary values is designed to camouflage the political reality of repression. By taking the concept of political culture as a framework for analysis, this article argues that Eritrea's double tragedy has two major causes. Firstly, it emanates from the surreal, tightly controlled personal rule of Isaias Afeworki who, in the face of declining legitimacy and a tenuous grip on power, has raised the level of repression to new heights. Secondly, it has its origins in the chasm in political orientations and belief systems between the body politic and society, resulting in a culture of anomie which expresses itself in mistrust, impunity, acquiescence and fatalism. The article argues that a viable political framework of state-building is only possible when two conditions are met. In the first place it is necessary that political institutions evolve within a political structure that is rooted in a rule of law that promotes the legitimacy of incumbents and policy governance. In addition, the political framework must facilitate the promotion of civil society as a political space for political education in order to foster the stable reproduction of democratic values of tolerance and coexistence.     

The Ankara Consensus: Islamists,Kemalists, and Why Turkey's Nationalism Remains Overlooked

Over the past decade scholarly consensus has moved away from viewing turmoil in Turkey as a product of religious–cultural incompatibility with modernization. Instead, scholars have shown that the rise of an Islamic elite has expanded democracy in Turkey, while often vexing the secularist elite. This article reviews the most important of the new scholarship, but criticizes it for inheriting the assumption that all events in Turkey somehow hinge upon Islamist–secularist antagonism. Alternatively, insights from sociology are employed to argue that domestic Turkish discord is intimately related to industrialization and democratization, and that excessive attention to supposedly religious conflict blinds much contemporary scholarship to the intolerant Sunni-Turkish nationalism cultivated by the Turkish state.     

Arab Nationalism and the Arab Union of 1958

The late 1950s was a turbulent period in the history of Arab nationalism. It saw the birth and demise of unity states (the United Arab Republic and the Arab Union), civil war, revolution and Western intervention. Despite its short five-month lifespan, the Iraqi–Jordanian Hashemite Arab Union contributed to the intensification of the traditional Egyptian–Iraqi rivalry, the overthrow of the Iraqi monarchy in 1958 and the American intervention in Lebanon the same year. It was the result of Arab nationalism, lingering British imperial dreams, the East–West conflict, economic considerations and an inter-Arab cold war. The Arab Union had obvious advantages over the United Arab Republic. Two such advantages were the greater number of cabinet posts granted to Jordan by the Arab Union than were granted to Syria by the United Arab Republic, and the fact that Amman retained its status as capital (one of two union capitals), whereas Damascus was downgraded to the status of provincial capital. These advantages, however, failed to prevent the premature demise of the union, which was caused by a combination of negative domestic and regional perceptions, economic constraint and military commitments.     

‘With the Islamists?—Sometimes. With the State?—Never!’ Cooperation between the Left and Islamists in Egypt

Recent forms of cooperation between unexpected bedfellows who have been traditional enemies of the past are making their way into the political opposition scene in different countries of the Middle East. Egypt offers an interesting example of a rising coalition between members and groups who have traditionally been arch enemies in the past, namely; factions of the Left, Islamist groups, nationalists, and an array of loosely organized opposition groups. The paper attempts to document and analyse the development of this coalition within a framework of New Social Movements and transnational civil society.     

Labour Demands,Regime Concessions: Moroccan Unions and the Arab Uprising

This article investigates how public employee unions mobilised to take advantage of Morocco's Arab uprising. Leveraging their positions as operators of public institutions, these unionists exploited the unrest to strategically advance their interests. Two points emerge from this account of state—labour relations in Morocco. First, a spike in labour contestation began in early 2010, presaging the unrest that rocked Moroccan cities in 2011. Second, the unions secured their demands through traditional tactics of labour mobilisation—joining street protests, exaggerating material demands, and threatening negotiation walkouts. This strategy, however, became more efficacious during the Arab uprising. Fearing urban riots that had historically grown from labour protests since the 1980s, regime elites conceded to union demands, many of which they had previously rejected in the 2000s.