1,721,269 research outputs found
Crossing the Formal/Informal Boundary
No full textOver the last decade or so, academic and non-academic observers have focussed mainly, if not exclusively on the institutions and places of formal power in the Greater Middle East, depicting politics in the region as a small area limited to local authoritarian rulers.
In contrast, this book aims to explore the ‘hidden geographies’ of power, i.e. the political dynamics developing inside, in parallel to, and beyond institutional forums; arguing that these hidden geographies play a crucial role, both in support of and in opposition to official power. By observing less frequented spaces of power, co-option, and negotiation, and particularly by focusing on the interplay between formal and informal power, this interdisciplinary collection provides new insights in the study of the intersection between policy-making and practical political dynamics in the Greater Middle East.
Contributing a fresh perspective to a much-discussed topic, Informal Power in the Greater Middle East will be an invaluable resource for students, scholars and those interested in the politics of the region
Disciplinary Politics of Civil Society and Democracy
No full textInformality has been a central concern for political enquiry since classical antiquity. Plato, Aristotle and many others were interested in education, military training, and the arts not just in and of themselves, but because, however perfect a city-state’s constitution might be, they could remain intact only if citizens’ conduct was righteous. In classical Islamic political philosophy also, the link between the quintessential informal quality of morality and political behaviour is a longstanding concern, as Ibn Khaldoun’s concern with asabiyya epitomises. From Machiavelli to Marx, Foucault to Agamben, the awareness of the importance of individual agency beyond the bounds and bonds of formal institutions – whether under the guise of ‘morality’, ‘subjectivation’, or ‘decision’ – has never left the horizon of political enquiry. Times when rapid and profound change becomes possible, and new legal-political orders may be forged, are one context in which the formal ‘rules of the game’ become less important than the informal sphere of motivations and decisions. In this sense, to focus on the relationship between formal and informal involves nothing less than inquiring into the relationship between constitutive and constituted power. Understanding this relationship is particularly crucial as it is the inversion of the ‘normal’ balance between formal and informal that marks out the transition from ‘ordinary’ politics to the exceptional.
Certainly, understanding political dynamics entails a focus beyond the state and the official public sphere of party politics (Fukui 2000). Drawing on Isaacs (2011) Anceschi points out that if we are to observe in isolation either side of the formal/informal divide, we risk failing to capture ‘the dynamic that occurs between both forms of politics’. Studies in this volume investigate this organic relation along three major axes. First, the informal manipulation of formal structures, such as Guida’s analysis of political proxies, Bacik’s description of emenetcilik, or Anceschi’s focus on the ‘informalization’ of Khazak constitutional procedures. Secondly, the formal manipulation of informal structures: Bassil’s historical tracing of the British (re)invention of tribalism in Darfur, and again Anceschi’s description of how informal patterns of rule are re-made through institutional channels – ironically, using rule of law as a rubric under which to affect such changes – which is eminently recognisable in so many Middle Eastern but also European contexts. Thirdly, the question of the line between regime and alternative, and between formal and informal is posed in different ways, in the difficult choices facing progressive civil society in Morocco noted by Dalmasso, or by Gervasio in Egypt.
These studies show that the demarcation between formal and informal and the line of causality not be simplified to a single chain of causality. They also make clear that the forces that organise politics themselves operate through an articulation of the relationship between formal and informal. A long line of studies, from Nietszche to Foucault to Mitchell, have noted that there are political implications to imaging administration and scholarship itself in certain ways and not others. In positivist scholarship, the conceptual categories and analytical tools scholars and policymakers deploy to interpret the world are supposed to work like the formal institutional realm, and kind of ‘constitution’ of the political. Yet, as Aristotle or Ibn Khaldoun would readily recognise, that formal structure can only operate insofar as there are arbitrary, informal mores to sustain it. It is this dimension of academic analytical frameworks as not merely describing but as intertwined with the process of imagining and bringing about the political that this contribution takes as its subject. To do this, it is important to analyse the scholarship on authoritarianism and democratization, investigating its reliance on certain categorisations which, like the category of ‘tribes’ in Bassil’s study, are themselves involved in generating, rather than merely reflecting, political practices. This chapter examines the theoretical construction of one of the founding dichotomies in the taxonomy underpinning post-war political science: ‘democracy’ and ‘authoritarianism’. Since for both political agents such as states and for scholars, ‘civil society’ is central to the conceptual architecture which has arisen around the idea of (liberal) democracy, and to its attendant politics, this contribution explores traits of this conceptual architecture and outlines some of its practical political implications
Orientalism as a form of Confession
No full textIn addition to being characterised as a ‘regime of truth’, Orientalist discourses also display the general properties of confessional discourses outlined in Foucault’s Will to Knowledge. The article argues that there is a similarity in the ‘effects of power’ made possible within these frameworks, particular regarding the legitimisation and application of discipline. Finally, the paper draws out a few implications for the analysis of power and resistance in confessional economies of power. The perspective this paper provides an insight into the in‐ ternal structure of Orientalist discourse; connects this structure with Orientalism’s ‘effects of power’; affords purchase on both Orientalism’s organisational and ontogenetic properties; helps explain the persistence of Orientalism – both overt and covert – despite three decades of post‐Orientalist scholarship. In this sense, a confessional perspective on Orientalism affords a broad view of the contemporary politics of truth in which Orientalism plays such as an im‐ portant part. Finally, a confessional perspective affords purchase on the nature of power, the formation of subjectivities, and the possibilities of resistance within Orientalist discursive con‐ texts, which Said’s own analysis is often said to lack
The Challenges for Egypt's Democratic Opposition
No full textAnalisi dei principali ostacoli alla transizione democratica in Egitto
The EU’s Partnership with the Southern Mediterranean: Challenges to Cohesion and Democracy
No full textConfession and Avowal in Foucault's early work, 1954-1972
No full textOne of Foucault’s most famous claims is that “Western man has become a confessing animal (bête d'aveu)” (Foucault, 1978, page 59). It is also one of his most misunderstood. This paper traces the evolution in Foucault’s use of confession (confession) and avowal (aveu) in his early work with two general objectives in mind: first, to obtain a better picture of the evolution of Foucault’s own thinking, particularly the roots of his better-known late work on these issues; and second, contribute towards the analytical development of these two concepts in and beyond Foucault’s own work
A Role in Search of a Hero: A Constructivist approach to the evolution of Egyptian foreign policy, 1952-67
No full textThis article considers the potential contributions Constructivism could bring to both International Relations (IR) and Middle East Studies (MES) thanks to a framework which emphasises the transformative potential of political identity, as well as the importance of its location within specific historical, social, political and cultural pathways. Constructivism presents perhaps the best and most realistic opportunity to build bridges between traditionally isolationist fields like IR and MES, and the analytical and empirical sections of this paper intend to offer a brief example of how that cross-fertilisation might take place. However, as a post-positivist framework, Constructivism also offers the possibility of reflecting on the development and interaction (or lack thereof) of IR and MES themselves. Unfortunately, Constructivism still has to make any significant impact upon MES, and despite the potentially radical impact this deployment of it might have on IR, on this aspect Constructivist literature is puzzlingly silent
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