The Search For Arab Democracy

In this study Larbi Sadiki takes a realistic approach to dissecting the questioning of democracy in Arab politics by tapping into indigenous narratives and drawing on interviews he has conducted over several years. The intention has been not just to analyze and represent the various discourses of democracy, but also to allow for a degree of self-representation through primary material. What should make this work timely is the global milieu of fluidity and contestability: how to be a "democrat" and how to be a Muslim are both the subjects of ongoing debates. There is indeed a contest over "which", "whose" and "how much" democracy takes place within an existing contest over "which", "whose" and "how much" Islam mist be given pre-eminence in the political and cultural sphere. There is a "democracy" and there are "democracies". There is an "Islam" and there are "Islams". The diversity of attempts at living up to the ideal of each is what gives rise to variable interpretations of each. It is this discursive moment that this work seizes on. Sadiki articulates and defends some provocative theses, making use of analytical tools from critical theory.
He questions Western and Islamic philosophy; analyzes and interrogates Orientalist and Occidentalist discourses of democracy; and analyzes some of the justifications and interpretations of democracy within a global context, giving space for self-representation by women and Islamists, among others.