Thesis (MA)--Stellenbosch University, 2002. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study focuses on the role of political elites in addressing the problem of why a durable peace has eluded Israeli Palestine. A theoretical background study was made on the articulation of identity within a civilization. This established identity formation as a political process. To see how the manipulation of the structure within which identity formation processes take place, six critical indicators were identified. These are: Manufacturing conditions of underdevelopment; Un-integrated social and political systems, and distributive injustice; Fostering cleavages, stereotypical images and political symbolism; Placing issues under the 'sign of security'; The production of insecurity through the manipulation of identity formation processes; and Monopolising the conflict resolution process. Political elite creation and perpetuation of structures for conflict shows an inherent inability to bring about a lasting peace in a protracted social conflict for conflict has become the source, rather than the outcome of policy formation. As a result this thesis calls for a more inclusive approach to conflict resolution, one that goes beyond the processes of arbitration, mediation, negotiation and facilitation, to include conciliation at grass roots level between civilizations, sincerely exploring the underlying emotional legacies of fear, hatred, sorrow and mistrust. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie fokus op die rol gespeel deur politieke elites in die voortslepende vraagstuk rondom vrede in Israel/Palestina. 'n Teoretiese agtergrondstudie is onderneem om die uitdrukking van 'n samelewing oftewel volksidentiteit te ondersoek. Die studie het laat blyk dat identiteitsformulering 'n politieke proses is. Om waar te neem hoe die manipulasie van die struktuur waarbinne identiteitsformulering plaasvind, is ses kritiese indikators geïdentifiseer, te wete: die skepping van toestande vir onderontwikkeling; ongeïntegreerde sosiale en politieke sisteme en ongelyke verdeling van welvaart; doelbewuste voortsetting van etniese verskille, stereotipering en politieke simbolisme; plasing van kwessies onder die vaandel van "sekuriteit"; die produksie van "onsekerheid" deur die manipulasie van identiteitsformulering prosesse; en die manipulasie van konflik resolusie prosedures. Skepping en doelbewuste voortsetting van strukture vir konflik deur politieke elites dui op 'n onvermoë om langdurige vrede in 'n 'uitgerekte sosiale konflik' te bewerkstellig. Konflik het die oorsprong, eerder as die uitkoms van beleid geword. As gevolg van hierdie feite doen die tesis 'n beroep dat konflik resolusie as dissipline 'n meer inklusiewe benadering volg. Die resolusie prosesse van mediasie, arbitrasie, fasilitering en onderhandeling is opsigself nie genoeg nie en behoort vergesel te word deur die proses van konsiliasie op grondvlak tussen samelewings. Hierdie proses moet deel vorm van 'n opregtheid om mense se vrese, haat, seer en wantroue met ootmoed aan te hoor.

No description available.

The Arab-Israeli conflict is examined from its religious aspect, presenting people's experience of religion without passing judgement. Selected concepts are compared and contrasted and interpreted hermeneutically. The roots of the antagonism are traced back historically, showing that it comprises more than a claim to the same geographical territory. Each religion's notion of statehood is described. Internally Jewish-Zionist friction over the ceding of territory arises through divergent interpretations of the same texts; Islam, Nationalism and religious rivalry, being at variance, have engendered Arab tensions. Their respective doctrines on war and peace suggest, broadly speaking, a Jewish-Zionist leaning to shalom, and Islam-Arab Nationalism to jihad (struggle). While the religious perspective does leave an opening for a solution to the conflict, pragmatism may lead to compromise. Finally the suggestion is made that the religious dimension is necessary for a holistic understanding of political issues / Religious Studies and Arabic / M.A. (Religious Studies)

This is a case study on the functioning of political parties and the aim was to explain “how” and “why” the Swedish social democratic party changed their policies in the Middle East politics. I wanted to explain this process of change by using Angelo Panebianco’s framework for the analysis of political parties. Angelo Panebianco´s hypothesis is that all parties must be viewed as organizations to understand their functions. With time they become more institutionalized and depending on their historic development they will end up as more or less institutionalized. If this change showed that the social democratic party acted as a bureaucratic and institutionalized organization, Panebianco’s organizational theory would explain the change of their Middle East politics. In my case study I have used a qualitative analysis of the content to interpret my material of measuring parties’ institutionalization level as “high” or “low” within the two different areas; organizational dilemmas and the dominant coalition. My conclusion is that the social democratic party has indications both of a “high” institutionalized organization and as a “low” institutionalized organization, still they have a relatively dominant coalition. My study demonstrates that Angelo Panebianco´s organizational theory can not fully explain “how” and “why” the Social democratic party changed their Middle East politics.

This study addresses the relationship between social capital and political action in the Middle East. The research uncovers indicators of how social capital correlates with democratic action. Using data from the 2005 World Values Survey, the examination centers on indicators of trust and membership in civic organizations and how they relate to political action in the region. The paper concludes with discussion of how trust-building and reciprocity can be interpreted within the political context of the Middle East, and how the relevance of social capital will be an unavoidable consideration in the transition away from autocracy in the region, especially when considering recent events.

The main objective of this research is to test some of the hypotheses linking economic development, social mobilization, legitimacy, and the coerciveness of the regime with internal political conflict. Each proposed hypothesis is to be tested across sixteen predominantly Islamic Middle Eastern nations for data from two time periods, 1960-66 and 1967-73. To check for the consistency and strength of the hypothesized relationships the test results for each hypothesis for the first period data will be compared with those of the second period.

This thesis is a theory-proposing and theory-testing study that examines the conditions of state survival in the Middle East. In contrast to the predominant Political Culture and Political Economy approaches, which focus on domestic factors to account for state survival in the Middle East, this thesis suggests that, more than the individual characteristics of states themselves, state survival in that region is a function of the anarchic state system. This thesis examines states as a ‘process’ situating them in time and place. It shows that Middle Eastern states are at once in the early phases of state formation as well as late comers to the international state system. This ontological status contributes to the vulnerability of these states to systematic forces, which in turn shapes their internal development. A major dilemma facing the late-forming state is between regime survival and political incorporation. The first part of this thesis examines the literatures on the state, the Middle East state, and state survival. The second part proposes a Historical Structuralism model and then examines the ontology of the state in the Middle East, specifying the conditions and variables of state survival. The third part presents an empirical examination of the cases of Saudi Arabia and Iraq.

By all conventional measurements of modernization and development, from communication and education to bureaucracy and urbanization, Arab societies have been undergoing an impressive transformation. There is, however, a wide gap in the Arab Middle East between such a transformation and the political consequences of modernization. In other words, the Arab Middle East exhibits a sharp contrast between its societal and political progress. In the case of Yemen, such a gap looks different from the one that exists in the rest of the region. In addition to being a country with the weakest and most limited bureaucracy in the Arab world, Yemen has, also, the lowest level of urbanization and education in the region. According to United Nations Human Development Report for the year 2004, 73.7 % of Yemen’s population are living in rural areas, and the country has a combined gross enrolment rate for primary, secondary and tertiary schools of 43%. In 2008, Yemen was rated near the bottom of the Human Development Index (HDI) by the UNDP; as number 153rd out of the 177 countries with HDI data, and it ranked as number 82 out of 108 countries in the Human Poverty Index. The United Nations Human Development Report 2006, for instance, indicates that the percentage of Yemeni population who live below National Poverty Line is 41.8%. Yet, Yemen is more democratic than most countries in the Arab Middle East. In light of this paradox, the following central question guides this research: which contextual factors are central in explaining the unique process of political modernization in tribal Yemen?

Iran's foreign policy is consistent and is fundamentally realist with a revolutionist vision while the means are rationalist is the central argument of this dissertation. I make use of the English Schools three traditions of realism, rationalism and revolutionism in analyzing the speeches of Iranian statesmen to identify the ways in which the dynamics of the three traditions have evolved since 1997 and what it means for interpreting the developments of Iran's foreign policy ventures. I utilize both quantitative and qualitative methods of analysis in examining the speeches of the supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, the presidents since 1997. The quantitative method employs a customized software generating figures that represent the recurrence of realist, rationalist and revolutionist terminologies in all the documents downloaded from the official websites of the Iranian statesmen as well as the United Nations and select news agencies and affiliates. The quantitative phase of the analysis, meanwhile, carefully examined selected statements of the supreme leader and the presidents uncovering the foreign policy argumentations and justifications, which were studied alongside foreign policy actions and classified under the three traditions. The findings suggest that Iran's foreign policy is the same as in the other states of international society – it is consistent and dynamic. It is simultaneously realist, rationalist and revolutionist with each tradition serving a specific purpose, which cannot be disentangled from the other two.

Ever since the military takeover of 1952, the post-monarchic political system of Egypt has been dependent upon a variety of mechanisms and structures to establish and further consolidate its powerbase. Among those, an intertwined web of what could be described as ‘patronage politics’ emerged as one of the main foundations of these tools and was utilized by the regime to establish the fundamentals of its rule. Throughout the post-1952 era, political patrons and respective clients were existent in Egyptian politics, shaping, to a great extent, the policies implemented by Egypt's rulers at the apex of the political system, as well as the tactics orchestrated by the populace within the middle and lower echelons of the polity. This study aims at analyzing the factors that ensured the durability of patronage networks within the Egyptian polity, primarily focusing on the sort of social structural reconfiguration that has been taking place in the popular communities of Egypt in the beginning of the 21st Century. Dissecting the area of Misr Al Qadima as an exemplar case study of Cairo’s popular quarters, the research mainly focuses on examining the role of the lesser notables, those middle patrons and clients that exist on the lower levels of the Egyptian polity within the ranks of the National Democratic Party and the Muslim Brotherhood. Henceforth, the sociopolitical agency of these lesser notabilities shall constitute the prime concern of the writing and, in doing so; this research also attempts to draw some linkage between the micro-level features of the popular polities of Cairo and the macro-level realities of the Egyptian polity at large, in the contemporary period.