Why the Arab Spring turned Islamic: the political economy of Islam

Mario Ferrero

Constitutional Political Economy, 2018, vol. 29, issue 2, No 5, 230-251

Abstract: Abstract This paper argues that the fundamental reason for the ascendancy of political Islam in the wake of the Arab revolutions lies in the uncompetitive nature of the religion and its implications for political economy: the fact that Islam is one and long since unchanged, which makes the Islamists’ call very costly to resist and very attractive to follow. The argument is developed through an examination of sectarian and legal history in Islam and a comparison of the nexus between church, state and individual in Christian and Muslim religious traditions. Special attention is devoted to Islamic Law and the law schools that define it.

Keywords: Islamic law; Political Islamism; Political economy of religion; Religious competition; Sectarianism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D72 Z12 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

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DOI: 10.1007/s10602-017-9247-9

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