Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-r5zm4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-07T11:01:05.720Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Islam, Social Justice, and Democracy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 February 2019

Sabri Ciftci Open the ORCID record for Sabri Ciftci [Opens in a new window]
Sabri Ciftci*
Affiliation:
Kansas State University
*
Address correspondence and reprint requests to: Sabri Ciftci, Department of Political Science, Kansas State University, 802 Mid-Campus Dr.-S, 216 Calvin Hall, Manhattan, KS 66506. E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Egalitarian preferences and benevolence are significant elements of Islamic social justice, which is one of the main pillars of Islam's ethico-political system. Surprisingly, empirical investigations about attitudinal implications of Islamic social justice values are rare. This is one of the first studies examining the correlations between Islam, social justice values, and regime preferences. It proposes that benevolence and egalitarian distributive preferences will induce democratic support and mediate the effect of religiosity on democratic orientations. Seemingly unrelated regression estimations using a Muslim-only sample from the sixth wave of the World Values Surveys support these hypotheses. The effects of social justice values are exclusive to support for democracy and not to support for authoritarian systems. Furthermore, religiosity increases support for democracy through intermediate mechanism of social justice values. These results imply that, next to principles of ijtihad, ijma, and shura, Islamic social justice values can induce pluralistic ideas in Muslim majority societies.

Type
Article
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , December 2019 , pp. 549 - 576
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2019 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This project is supported by Global Religion Research Initiative at Notre Dame University (Award #BG5225; IRB approval #8776). An earlier version of this paper was presented at the American Political Science Association Meeting (APSA), Washington DC, August 28–August 31, 2014.

References

REFERENCES

Aalberg, T. 2003. Achieving Justice: Comparative Public Opinions on Income Distribution. Leiden: Brill.Google Scholar
Abdelkader, D. 2000. Social Justice in Islam. Herndon, VA: International Institute of Islamic Thought.Google Scholar
Acemoglu, Daron, and Robinson, James A.. 2006. Economic Origins of Dictatorship and Democracy. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Arrow, Kenneth J. 1963. “Uncertainty and the Welfare Economics of Medical Care.” The American Economic Review 53(5):941–973.Google Scholar
Boix, C. 2003. Democracy and Redistribution. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Bratton, Michael. 2003. “Briefing: Islam, Democracy and Public Opinion in Africa.” African Affairs 102(408):493–501.Google Scholar
Browers, M. 2006. Democracy and Civil Society in Arab Political Thought: Transcultural Possibilities. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.Google Scholar
Cammett, M., and Issar, S.. 2010. “Bricks and Mortar Clientelism: Sectarianism and the Logics of Welfare Allocation in Lebanon.” World Politics 62(3):381–421.Google Scholar
Chen, D.L., and Lind, J.T. 2005. The political economy of beliefs: Why fiscal and social conservatives and liberals come hand-in-hand. Unpublished paper.Google Scholar
Ciftci, Sabri. 2010. “Modernization, Islam, or Social Capital: What Explains Attitudes Toward Democracy in the Muslim World?” Comparative Political Studies 43(11):1442–1470.Google Scholar
Ciftci, S. 2013. “Secular-Islamist Cleavage, Values, and Support for Democracy and Shari'a in the Arab World.” Political Research Quarterly 66(4):781–793.Google Scholar
Clark, J. A. 1995. “Islamic Social Welfare Organizations in Cairo: Islamization from Below?” Arab Studies Quarterly 17(4):11–28.Google Scholar
Collins, K., and Owen, E. 2012. “Islamic Religiosity and Regime Preferences Explaining Support for Democracy and Political Islam in Central Asia and the Caucasus.” Political Research Quarterly 65(3):499–515.Google Scholar
Davis, Nancy J., and Robinson, Robert V.. 2006. “The Egalitarian Face of Islamic Orthodoxy: Support for Islamic Law and Economic Justice in Seven Muslim-Majority Nations.” American Sociological Review 71(2):167–190.Google Scholar
Driessen, M. D. 2018. “Sources of Muslim Democracy: The Supply and Demand of Religious Policies in the Muslim World.” Democratization 25(1):115–135.Google Scholar
El-Affendi, A. A. 2008. Who Needs an Islamic State? London: Malaysia Think Tank London.Google Scholar
El Fadl, K. A. 2004. “The Place of Ethical Obligations in Islamic Law.” UCLA Journal of Islamic & Near Eastern Law 4(1):1–40.Google Scholar
Esposito, John L, and Mogahed, Dalia. 2007. Who Speaks for Islam? What a Billion Muslims Really Think? New York, NY: Gallup Press.Google Scholar
Esposito, J. L., and Voll, J. O. 1996. Islam and Democracy. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Feldman, Noah. 2007. The Rise and Fall of The Islamic State. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Fish, M. S. 2011. Are Muslims Distinctive?: A Look at the Evidence. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Frohlich, N. 2007. “A Very Short History of Distributive Justice.” Social Justice Research 20(2):250–262.Google Scholar
Gradstein, M., and Milanovic, B.. 2004. “Does Liberté=égalité? A Survey of the Empirical Links Between Democracy and Inequality with Some Evidence on the Transition Economies.” Journal of Economic Surveys 18(4):515–537.Google Scholar
Gellner, Ernest. 1991. “Islam and Marxism: Some Comparisons.” International Affairs 67(1):1–6.Google Scholar
Ghazâlî, A.H.A. 1998. Ihyâ’Ulûm al-Dîn. Vol. 3. Cairo: Maktabah Mishr.Google Scholar
Hallaq, W. B. 2005. The Origins and Evolution of Islamic Law. Vol. 1. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hallaq, W. B. 2009. An Introduction to Islamic Law. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Hasan, A. 1971. “Social Justice in Islam.” Islamic Studies 10(3):209–219.Google Scholar
Hassan, Riaz. 2008. Inside Muslim Minds: Understanding Contemporary Islamic Consciousness. Melbourne, Australia: Melbourne University Press.Google Scholar
Hefner, R. W., ed. (2011). Shariʻa Politics: Islamic Law and Society in the Modern World. Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Huntington, S. P. 1993. “The Clash of Civilizations?” Foreign Affairs 72(3): 22–49.Google Scholar
Iannaccone, Laurence. 1992. “Sacrifice and Stigma: Reducing Free-Riding in Cults, Communes, and Other Collectives.” Journal of Political Economy 100:271–91.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R., and Welzel, C. 2003. “Political Culture and Democracy: Analyzing Cross-Level Linkages.” Comparative Politics 36(1):61–79.Google Scholar
Inglehart, Ronald, and Welzel, Christian. 2005. Modernization, Cultural Change, and Democracy: The Human Development Sequence. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Inglehart, R., Haerpfer, C., Moreno, A., Welzel, C., Kizilova, K., Diez-Medrano, J., Lagos, M., Norris, P., Ponarin, E. & Puranen, B. et al. , eds. 2014. World Values Survey: Round Six - Country-Pooled Datafile Version: http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/WVSDocumentationWV6.jsp. Madrid: JD Systems Institute.Google Scholar
Jamal, Amaney. 2006. “Reassessing Support for Islam and Democracy in the Arab World? Evidence From Egypt and Jordan.” World Affairs 169(2):51–63.Google Scholar
Jamal, Amaney, and Tessler, Mark A.. 2008. “Attitudes in the Arab World.” Journal of Democracy 19(1):97–110.Google Scholar
Karakoc, E., and Baskan, B. 2012. “Religion in Politics: How Does Inequality Affect Public Secularization?” Comparative Political Studies 45(12):1510–1541.Google Scholar
Kedourie, Elie. 1994. Democracy and Arab Political Culture. London, UK: Frank Cass.Google Scholar
Kemal, Namik. 2002. And Seek Their Council”, in Charles Kurzman, Modernist Islam, 1840–1940: A Sourcebook. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Klingemann, Hans-Dieter. 1999. “Mapping Political Support in the 1990s: A Global Analysis.” In Critical Citizens: Global Support for Democratic Governance, ed. Norris, Pippa. New York: Oxford University, 31–56.Google Scholar
Kuran, Timur. 2004. Islam and Mammon: The Economic Predicaments of Islamism. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Lewis, Bernard. 2010. Faith and Power: Religion and Politics in the Middle East. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Linz, Juan J. 1978. The Breakdown of Democratic Regimes: Crisis, Breakdown, and Reequilibration. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Meyer, K., Rizzo, H., and Ali, Y.. 2007. “Changed Political Attitudes in the Middle East: The Case of Kuwait.” International sociology 22(3):289–324.Google Scholar
Öniş, Ziya. 2006. The Political Economy of Turkey's Justice and Development Party. In The Emergence of a New Turkey: Islam, Democracy, and the AK Party, ed. Yavuz, Hakan. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 207–234.Google Scholar
Oppenheimer, J., and Frohlich, N.. 2007. “Demystifying Social Welfare: Foundations for Constitutional Design.” Maryland Law Review 67:85.Google Scholar
Pepinsky, Thomas B., and Welborne, Bozena C.. 2011. “Piety and Redistributive Preferences in the Muslim World.” Political Research Quarterly 64(3):491–505.Google Scholar
Qutb, S., 2000. Social Justice in Islam, trans. John B. Hardie, New York: Islamic Publications International.Google Scholar
Ramadan, T. 2004. Western Muslims and the Future of Islam. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Rawls, J. 1971. A Theory of Justice. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University.Google Scholar
Reisch, M. 2014. “Introduction to Part I.” In The Routledge International Handbook of Social Justice, ed. Reisch, M.. New York: Routledge, 9–14.Google Scholar
Rizzo, H., Abdel-Latif, A. H., and Meyer, K. 2007. “The Relationship Between Gender Equality and Democracy: A Comparison of Arab Versus Non-Arab Muslim Societies.” Sociology 41(6):1151–1170.Google Scholar
Rodrik, D. 1999. “Democracies Pay Higher Wages.” The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 114(3):707–738.Google Scholar
Rose, R. 2002. “How Muslims View Democracy: Evidence From Central Asia.” Journal of Democracy 13(4):102–111.Google Scholar
Sabbagh, C., and Schmitt, M. 2016. “Past, Present, and Future of Social Justice Theory and Research.” In Handbook of Social Justice Theory and Research, eds. Sabbagh, C. and Schmitt, M.. New York, NY: Springer, 1–11.Google Scholar
Sachedina, Abdulaziz Abdulhussein. 2001. The Islamic Roots of Democratic Pluralism. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Scheve, K., and Stasavage, D.. 2012. “Democracy, War, and Wealth: Lessons From Two Centuries of Inheritance Taxation.” American Political Science Review 106(1):81–102.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1977. Non-linear Social Welfare Functions: A Reply to Professor Harsanyi. In Foundational Problems in the Special Sciences. Netherlands: Springer, 2002, 297–302.Google Scholar
Sen, A. 1999. “The Possibility of Social Choice”. American Economic Review 89(3):349–378.Google Scholar
Shariati, A. 1979. On the Sociology of Islam. (H. Algar, Trans.). Berkeley, CA: Mizan Press.Google Scholar
Singer, A. 2008. Charity in Islamic Societies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Spierings, N. 2014a. “The Influence of Islamic Orientations on Democratic Support and Tolerance in Five Arab Countries.” Politics and Religion 7(4):706–733.Google Scholar
Spierings, N. 2014b. “Islamic Attitudes and the Support for Gender Equality and Democracy in Seven Arab Countries, and the Role of Anti-Western Feelings.” Multidisciplinary Journal of Gender Studies 3(2):423–456.Google Scholar
Tessler, Mark. 2002. “Islam and Democracy in the Middle East: The Impact of Religious Orientations on Attitudes Toward Democracy in Four Arab Countries.” Comparative Politics 34(2):33–54.Google Scholar
Tessler, Mark. 2015. Islam and Politics in the Middle East: Explaining the Views of Ordinary Citizens. Indiana: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Tessler, M., Jamal, A., and Robbins, M.. 2012. “New Findings on Arabs and Democracy.” Journal of Democracy 23(4):89–103.Google Scholar
Wickham, Carrie R. 2002. Mobilizing Islam: Religion, Activism, and Political Change in Egypt. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Yenigun, Halil I. 2017. The New Antinomies of the Islamic Movement In Post-Gezi Turkey: Islamism vs. Muslimism. Turkish Studies 18(2):229–250.Google Scholar
Yom, S. L., and Gause, F. G. III 2012. Resilient Royals: How Arab Monarchies Hang on. Journal of Democracy 23(4):74–88.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Ciftci supplementary material

Ciftci supplementary material 1

Download Ciftci supplementary material(File)
File 54.9 KB