Islam and Democracy: State-society Relations in Developing Countries, 1980-1994

Islam and Democracydeals with the pertinent issues of democracy, state-society relations, civil society, and Islam in developing countries and attempts to integrate the recent literature on civil society in the Middle East with the mainstream political science debate on democracy. This study makes use of political science theory and methodology as well as an area-study approach to draw conclusions on the prospects for democratization in developing countries in general. The study further challenges explanations of prospects for the democratization of state grounded on the cultural traits of each society, arguing that culture becomes an important factor in the struggle for democracy only when it contributes to either concentration or dispersion of social, economic, and political resources. (Ph.D. dissertation, University of Arizona, 1993; revised with new preface, bibliography, and index)