Suchergebnisse

Frontmatter -- Contents -- I Intellectuals and Democratization -- 1 Introduction -- 2 Intellectuals and the Discourse of Democracy -- 3 Intellectuals and Democratization -- 4 The New Democracy: Intellectuals in Power -- II Erstwhile Allies -- 5 Democracy and the Bourgeoisie -- 6 Democracy and the Working Class -- 7 Democracy and the Landowners -- 8 Democracy and the Military -- 9 Democracy and the Great Powers -- 10 Aftermath and Implications -- Notes -- Acknowledgments -- Bibliography -- Index

Why are there so few Muslim terrorists? With more than a billion Muslims in the world why don't we see terrorist attacks every day? Where are the missing martyrs? Such questions may seem counterintuitive, in light of the death & devastation that terrorists have wrought around the world. But the scale of violence, outside of several civil war zones, has been far lower than the waves of attacks that the world feared in the wake of 9/11. Terrorists' own publications complain about the failure of Muslims to join their cause. This text draws on government sources, public opinion surveys, election results, & in-depth interviews with Muslims in the Middle East & around the world to examine barriers to terrorist recruitment, including 'radical sheik,' liberal Islam, revolutionary rivalries, & an inelastic demand for US foreign policy.

Abstract
For half a century, comparative social science has been closely associated with John Stuart Mill's methods of comparison. However, few social scientists had heard of Mill's methods in 1970. Within a decade, the methods of agreement and difference had become part of the methodological canon—despite Mill's objections that these methods should under no circumstances be used in the social sciences. Comparativists continued to overlook the methods that Mill actually proposed for the social sciences, which relied on an analogy with astronomical observations rather than chemistry experiments. Yet Mill's own empirical research offered substantive findings without dwelling much on methods. Over the past half-century, successful works of comparative social science have pursued all three versions of Millian methods: the comparative methods that he widely associated with; the alternative methods that he proposed for social science; and the actual methods that he pursued, whose success lay in their creativity, not in methodological recipes.

The sociology of Islam arguably emerged in the fourteenth century with the work of Ibn Khaldun, but the term itself appeared first in 1931. In recent years, the field has expanded to encompass the study of all aspects of the social lives of the world's Muslims, who constitute one-fifth of the global population—hence the plural label, sociologies of Islam. This article reviews four central debates in the field: approaches to Muslim modernities, challenging Orientalist images of Islam as enduringly premodern; tensions between national and global Islamic identities and institutions; activism around Muslim women's rights, both by women and by state-building men; and proliferating challenges to Muslim authorities. As the field confronts political pressures and barriers to scholarly travel, the way forward may involve collaborations that extend training opportunities and comparative research across national and regional borders.

If this special issue on Middle East protest had been published two years ago, it probably would have focused more on accounting for the failure of opposition movements than accountting for their successes. Since the "Arab Spring" emerged in the winter of 2011, however, observers have rushed to explain mass revolts in the region. This introduction to the special issue reviews some of the explanations offered for these extraordinary events, and finds that the factors that are frequently cited in these explanations do not map comfortably onto the sites of greatest protest in the region. The essay then suggests an alternative approach, one that looks past causation in an attempt to understand the lived experience of the uprisings. The goal is to examine how actors changed as they perceived the possibility of protest, how they made meaning of their lives through the act of protesting, or not protesting, during moments of exceptional confusion and stress. This approach focuses on the twists of history that confound social scientific explanation. One twist that is highlighted in this essay and throughout the special issue is the sudden prominence of bravery—the ineffable but potentially influential desire to engage in risky protest. Bravery is not a causal variable but a disposition that may appear and disappear with the vagaries of the moment, altering the micro-flow of events and making a noticeable, if tiny, difference in the course of mass protests.

Which Iranian uprising does the Arab Spring bring to mind? The Green Movement of 2009, which challenged the pillars of the Islamic Republic of Iran, or the Iranian Revolution of 1979, which brought the Islamic Republic to power?

If this special issue on Middle East protest had been published two years ago, it probably would have focused more on accounting for the failure of opposition movements than accounting for their successes. Since the "Arab Spring" emerged in the winter of 2011, however, observers have rushed to explain mass revolts in the region. This introduction to the special issue reviews some of the explanations offered for these extraordinary events, and finds that the factors that are frequently cited in these explanations do not map comfortably onto the sites of greatest protest in the region. The essay then suggests an alternative approach, one that looks past causation in an attempt to understand the lived experience of the uprisings. The goal is to examine how actors changed as they perceived the possibility of protest, how they made meaning of their lives through the act of protesting, or not protesting, during moments of exceptional confusion and stress. This approach focuses on the twists of history that confound social scientific explanation. One twist that is highlighted in this essay and throughout the special issue is the sudden prominence of bravery-the ineffable but potentially influential desire to engage in risky protest. Bravery is not a causal variable but a disposition that may appear and disappear with the vagaries of the moment, altering the micro-flow of events and making a noticeable, if tiny, difference in the course of mass protests. Adapted from the source document.

If terrorist methods are as widely available as automobiles, why are there so few Islamist terrorists? In the view of Islamist terrorists, the West is engaged on a massive assault on Muslim societies and has been for generations. This assault involves military invasions, political denomination, economic dependence, and cultural decadence. Islamists offer a solution: the establishment of Islamic government. Revolutionary Islamists offer a strategy to achieve Islamist government: armed insurrection. But Islamist terrorists worry that things have not worked out as planned. Acts of terrorism have not led Muslims to revolt. Adapted from the source document.