Islam and the United States: streams of convergence,strands of divergence

This article identifies four historical phases of relations between Islam and the Western world, as led by the United States. The first phase was a convergence of values coinciding with a divergence of empathy. The second phase reversed the order – Islamic and Western values diverged, but intercommunal relations became closer. The third phase is after September 11 when intercommunal relations once again diverged while differences between Western and Islamic values were greater than ever. The futuristic fourth phase of Islam's relations with the U.S.‐led Western world is when the power of the new American Empire is circumscribed, Western values become less libertarian, and Islam reconciles itself to modernity.     

Children in the 20th-century family economy: From co-providers to consumers

The position of children in the family economy changed fundamentally from the 19th century onward. In the Netherlands, the first child labor act was introduced in 1874; compulsory schooling was established in 1901. Since then, the economic contribution to the family income by children has gradually disappeared. Until the 1960s, in working-class families, the financial contribution of adolescents to the family income remained of great importance. Young workers gave their whole wage to the family in exchange for housing, food, clothes, and some pocket money. This article describes how the economic role of teenagers has changed since then. Nowadays, children and adolescents do not contribute to the family purse any longer.     

In the Same Boat,but not Equals: The Heterogeneous Effects of Parental Income on Child Labour

This paper examines the impact of parental income on child labour. The empirical literature has found conflicting results regarding whether poverty leads parents to send their children to work. Most of this literature, however, treats child labourers as a single homogeneous group, ignoring differences among working children in work intensity, hazard exposure, and type of employer. This paper argues that accounting for the heterogeneity in child’s working conditions may explain the conflicting results in the literature. Specifically, the existence of this heterogeneity may reflect heterogeneity in parents’ perceptions about the returns to child’s work, and hence in parental reasons to send their children to work. To test this hypothesis, I estimate the effects of parental income on child labour for various working conditions, using data from the 2010 Egypt National Child Labour Survey. This dataset provides rich information on the working conditions of child labourers. The findings show that the effect of parental income on child labour is minimal among children who work in non-hazardous jobs, jobs that are not highly physical, or in family businesses. In contrast, higher parental income does decrease the likelihood of child labour in market work, jobs that are physical and hazardous jobs.     

Future reviews

Yet more on the Islamic revival

The Islamic Impulse. Edited by Barbara Freyer Stowasser. London & Sydney: Croom Helm with Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC. 1987. 329pp. £25.00hb

From Nationalism to Revolutionary Islam. Edited by Said Amir Arjomand. London: Macmillan, with St Antony's College, Oxford. 1984. 256pp. £33.00hb

Islam and the Political Economy of Meaning: Comparative Studies of Muslim Discourse. Edited by William R Roff. London: Croom Helm. 1987. 295pp. £25.00hb

Minorities and the problem of the state

The Elementary Structures of Political Life: Rural Development in Pahlavi Iran. Grace E Goodell. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1985. 362pp. n/p

Islam and Resistance in Afghanistan. Olivier Roy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 1986. 253pp. £27.50hb/£9.95pb

The State, Religion, and Ethnic Politics: Afghanistan, Iran and Pakistan. Edited by Ali Banuazizi and Myron Weiner. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. 1986. 464pp. $35.00hb

Iran's revolution reappraised

Iran: A Revolution in Turmoil. Edited by Haleh Afshar. London: Macmillan. 1985. 262pp. £25.00hb/£8.95pb

The Iranian Revolution and the Islamic Republic. Edited by Nikki R Keddie and Eric Hooglund. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press. 1986. 246pp. $14.95pb

The Spirit of Allah: Khomeini and the Islamic Revolution. Amir Taheri. London: Hutchinson. 1985. 350pp. £14.95hb

All Fall Down: America's Tragic Encounter with Iran. Gary Sick. New York: Random House. 1985. 366pp. $19.95hb

Revolutionary Iran: Challenge and Response in the Middle East. R K Ramazani. London: Johns Hopkins University Press. 1986. 311pp. £21.60hb

The Left in Contemporary Iran: Ideology, Organization and the Soviet Connection. Sepehr Zabih. London: Croom Helm. 1986. 239pp. £25.00hb

Iran: At War with History. John W Limbert. Boulder, Colorado: Westview (distributed in the UK by IPI). 1987. 186pp. £24.00hb

The discovery of the Lebanese Shia

Militant Islamic Movements in Lebanon: Origins, Social Basis, and Ideology. Edited by Marius Deeb. Washington, DC: Center for Contemporary Arab Studies, Georgetown. University. 1986. 27pp. n/p

The Vanished Imam: Musa al‐Sadr and the Shia of Lebanon. Fouad Ajami. London: I B Tauris. 1986. 228pp. £15.95hb

Amal and the Shi'a: Struggle for the Soul of Lebanon. Augustus Richard Norton. Austin, Texas: University of Texas Press. 1987. 238pp. $10.95pb

The beguiling Gulf Cooperation Council

Majlis al‐Taawun al‐Khaliji: Al‐Itar al‐Siyasi wal‐Istratiji (The Gulf Cooperation Council: The Political and Strategic Framework). Abdallah Fahd al‐Nafisi. London: Ta‐Ha Publishers. 1982. 72pp. £2.50pb

Al‐Itar Al‐Qanuni wal‐Siyasi Li‐Majlis al‐Taawun al‐Khaliji (The Legal and Political Framework of the Gulf Cooperation Council). Abdallah al‐Ishal. Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. 1983. 291pp. $10.00pb

Majlis al‐Taawun al‐Khaliji: Azmat al‐Siyasat wal‐Shariyat (The Gulf Cooperation Council: The Crisis of Politics and Legitimacy). Majid al‐Majid. London: Ta‐Ha Publishers. 1986. 99pp. £2.50pb

Majlis al‐Taawun li‐Dual al‐Khalij al‐Arabiyyah: Ruyat Mustaqbaliyat, Dirasat Qanuniyat, Siyasiyat, Iqtisadiyat (The Gulf Cooperation Council: Future Developments—A Legal, Political and Economic Study). Yahya Halmi Rajab. Kuwait: Maktabat al‐Arubat lil‐Nashr wal‐Tawzi. 1983. 528pp. $12.00pb     

Turkey’s global governance strategies at the UN compared to the BRICS (2008–2014): clarifying the motivation–contribution nexus

This study attempts to analyse Turkey’s contribution to the United Nations (UN) system in comparison with those of the Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (BRICS) countries between 2008 and 2014 on three levels: personnel, financial, ideational. Employing an integrated methodology of a global governance contribution index (GGCI) and statistical analysis of complementary raw data, this study empirically reveals the degree to which Turkey was able to transfer its capabilities into an effective contribution to the UN system on the three levels. Drawing on the findings of its quantitative analysis, this paper further qualitatively assesses the reasons behind the gap between Turkey’s global governance motivations and its contribution to the UN system. In doing so, this study, first, deals with the main motivational drivers of its activism in global governance in the 2000s. After unpacking its integrated methodology, the second part of this study quantitatively compares Turkey’s contribution to the UN system to that of the BRICS. The third part of this study delves into the main trends and deficiencies in Turkey’s contribution to the UN system. Finally, this study concludes that Turkey, despite its high motivations for activism in global governance, has not performed well in transferring its capacities into contributions to the UN system, particularly on financial and personnel levels.     

An Analysis of Perceptions of Western Corporate Governance Principles in Saudi Arabia

Managers working for multinational firms must evaluate the extent to which they should adapt corporate governance mechanisms to local markets or to pursue a one-size-fits-all approach. In 1999, the OECD Principles of Corporate Governance were endorsed by OECD ministers in an attempt to influence policymakers worldwide by setting global governance standards. Yet the level of approval and understanding of these principles in non-OECD nations is still unclear. In this study we develop and test a survey instrument in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to assess perceptions of OECD principles by 168 Saudi Arabian managers. Results suggest that Saudi Arabian perceptions of shareholder rights are positively related to

a) maintaining an effective corporate governance framework and

b) the effective monitoring of management by the board of directors.

Managerial implications and future research directions are also discussed.     

Charismatic political authority and populist economics in post-revolutionary Iran

This paper undertakes a political analysis of economic policy in Iran in the post-1979 period, and examines a specific kind of populist economics within the legacy of the rentier state as a result of the emergence of charismatic political authority. It discusses the implications of charismatic authority which led to the implementation of populist economics, and which coincided with economic and political instability during the reign of Ayatollah Khumaini and afterwards when his successor was involved in a crisis of routinisation of charismatic legitimacy. In doing so, the economic effects of such policies are examined in terms of the (re)distribution of income and the establishment of para-governmental organisations, the overvaluation of the national currency, and the budget deficit and its inflationary pressure.