Ortadoğudaki Demokrasi Eksikliğinin Sebeplerinin İslam’ın Rolü Üzerinden Yeniden Değerlendirilmesi

Ortadoğunun demokratik olmayan rejimlerine, halkları tarafından karar verme sürecine dahil edilmemeleri nedeniyle çok sayıda meydan okumalarda bulunulmuştur. Ancak siyasi çatışmalarda bütün faktörler arasında en büyük rolün İslam ve İslami yönetim biçimine ait olduğu iddia edilmiştir. Bilhassa İslam ve demokrasi uyumsuzluğu fikri baskın gelmiş ve diğer nedenlerin ihmal edilmesine yol açmıştır. Bu çalışma bölgede demokrasi eksikliğine neden olan (1) hükümetlere temel siyasi ve hakları iptal etme hakkı veren güvensizlik ortamı, (2) rejimleri halklara olan bağımlılıktan kurtaran hidrokarbon gelirleri, (3) Ortadoğu yönetimlerinde geleneksel olarak bulunan kabilecilik, (4) sivil toplumun eksikliği ve (5) İslam’ın etkisi gibi nedenleri incelemektedir. Çalışma, İslam’ın herhangi bir siyasi yönetim biçimi önermemesine rağmen çekişmelerdeki rolünün abartıldığını iddia etmektedir. Ayrıca, bu tür yaklaşımlar diğer sebeplerin güçlü etkisinin küçümsendiği manasına gelmektedir. Bu araştırma, İslam’ın bölgenin demokrasi eksikliği üzerinde ne kadar rolü olduğunu dinin yönetim üzerindeki etkisi, siyasi İslamcılar ve karşıtlarınca bir malzeme gibi kullanılması ve demokrasi ile olan uyumunu inceleyerek ortaya çıkarmayı amaçlamaktadır.

Reassessing the Reasons of Democracy Deficit in the Middle East Through the Role of Islam

There has been a large number of challenges to undemocratic regimes of the Middle East by their populations due to the ban on their participation to the decision-making process. Among many factors, Islamic faith and legislation are regarded to have more role in political conflicts than others. Particularly, the idea that Islam and democracy are not compatible with each other has prevailed and led to other reasons to be ignored in debates. This study analyzes the reasons for democracy deficit in the region such as insecure circumstances that enable governments to abandon basic human and political rights, hydrocarbon revenues that make regimes non-dependent to populations, tribalism which is inherent to traditional Middle Eastern politics, the lack of civil society and the Islam effect. The study asserts that the role of Islam is unfairly exaggerated since it does not offer a certain political system. Besides, such approaches also mean underestimating the magnitude of the damages other reasons cause. By analyzing the impact of Islam on governance, its use as a tool by political and anti-political Islamists as well as its compliance with democracy, this research aims to reveal to what extent Islam can be attributed to democracy deficit of the region.

___

  • Al Sisi, Abdelfattah. Democracy in The Middle East. Carlisle: US Army Was College, 2006.
  • Ateş, Hamza. “İslam ve Demokrasi Üzerine”. Turkish Journal of TESAM Academy 14, no. 1 (2017): 215-224.
  • Barrios, Cristina. Promoting Democracy in the Middle East and North Africa Region. Paris: Notre Europe, 2005.
  • Bayat, Asef . Islam and Democracy: What is The Real Question? Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press, 2007.
  • Bhutto, Benazir. Reconciliation: Islam, Democracy, and the West.New York: Harper Perennial, 2009.
  • Blackwill, Robert and Gordon Philip. Repairing the U.S.-Israel Relationship. Report No: 76. Washington: Council on Foreign Relations, 2016.
  • Brown, Nathan J. et al. Islamist Movements and The Democratic Process in The Arab World Exploring The Gray Zones. Washington: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Publications, 2006.
  • Corstange, Daniel. “Kinship, Partisanship, and Patronage in Arab Elections”, Electoral Studies, no. 52 (2018):58-72.
  • Craner, Lorne. “Democracy in the Middle East: Will US Democratization Policy Work?” Middle East Quarterly, Summer (2006): 3-10.
  • El Badawi, Ibrahim and Samir Makdisi. “Explaining The Democracy Deficit in The Arab World”, The Quarterly Review of Economics and Finance, no. 46 (2007): 813–831.
  • Echagüe, Ana. “Saudi Arabia: Emboldened Yet Vulnerable”. In Geopoltics and Democracy in the Middle East, edited by Kristina Kausch, 77-88. Madrid: Fride, 2011.
  • Faris, David M. “New Media and Democracy in the Arab World”, International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences 2, no. 16 (2015): 776-781.
  • Fish, Steven. Islam and Authoritarianism. World Politics 55, no. 1 (2002): 4-37.
  • Fukuyama, Francis. The End of History and the Last Man. New York: Free Press, 1992.
  • Girdner, Eddie J. “The Greater Middle East Initiative: Regime Change, Neoliberalism and US Global Economy”, The Turkish Yearbook, no. 36 (2005): 37-71.
  • Gillespie, Kate. “The Middle East's Corruption Conundrum”. Current History Magazine 105, no. 687 (2006).
  • Güvercin, Deniz. Why Autocracies in the Middle East and North Africa are Persistent: A Game Theoretic Approach. PhD Dissertation, Istanbul Bilgi University, 2015.
  • Hamid, Shadi. “The Struggle For Middle East Democracy”, Cairo Review, no.1 (2011):18-29.
  • Hawthorne, Amy. Middle Eastern Democracy; Is Civil Society The Answer? Washington: Carnegie Endowment, 2004.
  • Huntington, Samuel P.. The Third Wave: Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1991.
  • Islam, Nazrul and Islam Saidul. “Islam and Democracy: Conflicts and Congruence”, Religions 8, no. 104 (2017): 1-19.
  • Kal’aci, Muhammed. Mevsûʿatü Fıḳhi ʿAbdillâh b. ʿÖmer. Istanbul: İrşad Yayınları, 2009.
  • Kamrava, Mehran. The Middle East's Democracy Deficit in Comparative Perspective. Perspectives on Global Development and Technology 6, no.1-3 (2007):189-213.
  • Kedourie, Elie. Democracy and Arab Political Culture. London: Frank Cass, 1994.
  • Kubicek, Paul. Political Islam and Democracy in the Muslim World. Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2015.
  • Knudsen, Are. Political Islam in the Middle East. Report 3. Bergen: Chr. Michelsen Institute, 2003.
  • Mast, Nina. The Israel Lobby and US Policy in the Middle East: The Iraq War, The Egyptian Arab Spring, and Iran’s Nuclear Program. Honor Thesis, Carnegie Mellon University, 2014.
  • Mearsheimer, John and Stephen Walt. The Israel Lobby and US Foreign Policy. Cambridge: John F. Kennedy School of Government Faculty Research Working Paper Series, 2006.
  • Mubarak, Abdulkadir. “Democracy from Islamic Law Perspective”, Kom, no. 3 (2016):1-18.
  • Munoz, Gema Martin. “Democracy and the Arab World: The ‘Islamist dilemma’”. In Why Europe Must Engage with Political Islam edited by Amr Elshobaki, 21-33. Barcelona: EU Institute for Security Studies, 2010. Perlini, Caterina. Democracy in the Middle East: External Strategies and Domestic Politics. Bucharest: IRIA, 2015.
  • Pipes, Daniel. “There Are No Moderates: Dealing with Fundamentalist Islam”, The National Interest, no. 41 (1995): 48–57.
  • Rothstein, Bo and Broms Rasmus. Why No Democracy in the Arab-Muslim World?The Importance of Temple Financing and Tax Farming. Göteborg: University of Gothenburg Press, 2010.
  • Saikal, Amin and Albrecht Schnabel. Democratization in the Middle East. Tokyo: The United Nations University, 2003.
  • Schomaker, Rahel. “Sharia Law and The Transition Towards More Democracy and a Market Economy –Restrictions and opportunities”, Topics in Middle Eastern and African Economies 18, no. 1 (2016):156-174.
  • Şahin, Bican. “Is Islam an Obstacle to Democratization in the Muslim World? The Debate of the Compatibility of Islam and Democracy Revisited”, Bilig, Türk Dünyası Sosyal Bilimler Dergisi, no. 37 (2006): 189-206.
  • USIP. Islam and Democracy. Special Report. Washington: The United States Institute of Peace, 2002.
  • An-Naim, Abdullahi Ahmed (2015). “Is Islamic Family Law Today Really Based On Shari’a? Why It Is Important To Know”, Muslims For Progressive Values, accessed September 9, 2019, https://www.mpvusa.org/sharia-law.
  • CPI. “Middle East and North Africa Transparency”. Transparency International, accessed November 17, 2019, https://www.transparency.org/news/feature/cpi_2019_Middle_East_North_Africa.
  • Hersh, Seymour. U.S. Secretly Gave Aid to Iraq Early in Its War Against Iran. The New York Times, accessed December 15, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/26/world/us-secretly-gave-aid-to-iraq-early-in-its-war-against-iran.html.
  • Fuller, Graham. “Qatar’s “Maverick” Foreign Policies”. Graham Fuller, accessed March, 12, 2018, http://grahamefuller.com/qatars-maverick-foreign-policy/.
  • Özdenören, Rasim. “İslam ve Demokrasi”. Yeni Şafak, accessed June 12, 2019, https://www.yenisafak.com/yazarlar/rasimozdenoren/islam-ve-demokrasi-36141.
  • Sowers, Jeannie. Why is democracy elusive in the Middle East? Research Gate, accessed May 1, 2019. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/254721714_Why_is_democracy_elusive_in_the_Middle_East/references.