<p>ABSTRACT</p><p>Essay in Political Science, Advanced Continuation Course, 61-80 credits, by Jonas Nilsson</p><p>”The democratic islamist? - a study of three islamist movements and their potential role in a</p><p>democratization process”</p><p>Supervisor: Jonas Linde</p><p>The purpose of this work has been to explain to what extent islamist movements can be said to be</p><p>bearers of democratic values and if they have a role to play in future democratization processes. The</p><p>purpose of this work is also to examine the democratic views of the different islamist movements and</p><p>to compare them with each other in an effort to find a specific islamist definition of democracy.</p><p>The essay is a qualitative analysis of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, Front Islamique du Salut in</p><p>Algeria and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The analytical framework is based on the political institutions</p><p>included in Robert A. Dahl polyarchial democracy. The institutions provided by the polyarchial</p><p>model is used to define the islamist movements stand on democracy which is defined by three different</p><p>standpoints. The movements can either accept, decline or modify the various institutions and the</p><p>results from the analysis helps us to evaluate the future role of islamist movements in the</p><p>democratization process. The results also provides the opportunity to define a version of democracy</p><p>specific for the islamist movements. The conclusion I have made is that the islamist movements</p><p>included in the study have a part to play in a future democratization process. They have shown that</p><p>their commitment to the democratic ideals defined by Dahl is quite extensive and that they as</p><p>separate movements have developed a more advanced view of the relationship between islam and</p><p>democracy as a social order. Though democratic at first glance there are signs that the islamists</p><p>standpoint on democracy comes with certain reservations. The most significant of these</p><p>reservarvations is the islamists regard of islam as an overarching ideology and the subordinate role</p><p>of man made political systems such as democracy. However, the islamists have found ways to handle</p><p>this problem and points out the inherent democratic values in islam and thereby tries to circumvent</p><p>the problematic relationship between democracy and religion. The study also concludes that we can</p><p>define the islamist version of democracy as a specific form of democracy, a value-based participatory</p><p>democracy. This conclusion is based on the islamist emphasis on the importance of ethics, decency</p><p>and virtue in a society, at the same time as they also emphasize the need for legitimacy provided by</p><p>the people through free, fair and frequent elections.</p>
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA/oai:DiVA.org:oru-1445 |
| Date | January 2007 |
| Creators | Nilsson, Jonas |
| Publisher | Örebro University, Department of Social and Political Sciences |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, text |
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