Pluralization of Islamist Politics in the MENA Region

Abstract

This panel aims to bring together papers that introduce new conceptual and theoretical frameworks to the understanding of pluralization of Islamist party politics. By the term, pluralization, we consider not only the increase in the number of Islamist parties in a political context but also the adoption of pluralist perspectives in their political platforms. This panel is closely related to the works of the ERC-funded project TARICA (“Political and socio-institutional change in North Africa. Competition of models and diversity of national trajectories”), and as such, will emphasize the issue of the circulation of models for the Islamist political parties: the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, the Saoudi wahhabism, the Turkish AKP, and so on. How this models are appropriated and adapted by local actors, and how are they using them as a source of legitimacy? In addition, the papers in this panel should deal with the following set of questions: “Under what circumstances is it possible to observe the pluralization of Islamist party politics? How can one Islamist party embrace a plurality of Islamic thoughts in its political agenda? Can party splits be considered as an indicator for the pluralization of Islamist politics? Why and how do the Islamist parties split? Why do not they split? How do the Islamist party splits contribute to a democratization process in one political setting and they do not in another one?” This panel is open to analyzing variety of cases from the Middle East and North Africa to shed light on such questions from a comparative perspective. It aims to bridge the literature on the moderation of Islamist parties with the more general theories of political parties and political party systems. It explores whether the popular theories of Islamist party moderation (such as the inclusion-moderation thesis or the strategic-interaction hypothesis) can be complemented with the growing body of literature on party change and new party formation. Within this framework, this panel welcomes papers that include case study analyses of Islamist party politics in the MENA region.