Liberal and Islamic Democratic Theory

The global financial crisis and the emergence of the new social movements like Occupy, Indignados or 99%, reacting to the rising inequality by formulating the quest for social justice as the quest for genuine democracy, have once again revealed the decisiveness of the problem of inequality for democratic theory and institutions. The concept of Islamic democracy, re-emerging from the events surrounding the Arab Spring, appeared as a possible alternative to liberal democracy and as an authentic democratic solution for the Arab world concerning primarily the questions of legitimacy, re-presentation, decision-making and inequality, both at the global and nation-state level. In the West, Islamic democracy has most frequently been conceived of as a liberal Islamic response to Islamic fundamentalism and by its advocates in the Arab region as an authentic Islamic alternative to Western dominated liberal democracy, later being regarded as ill equipped to address the problems of unequal global development and poverty. The concept of Islamic democracy offered convincing narratives in favour of social justice, thereby gaining a strong potential for grass-root mobilisation. The events of the second phase of the Arab Spring (after the authoritarian secular governments in Egypt and Tunisia were toppled) and the establishment of the political blocks ascribing to Islamic democracy like Ennahda in Tunisia and Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, saw the continuing undiminished quest for "real democracy" and "social justice". The post-Arab Spring social demands, such as those articulated by the re-emergent Tahrir movement in Egypt and Kasserine uprising in Tunisia, seem to follow similar agendas to the new social movements Occupy, Democracia real! and 99% by challenging the social and economic regimes imbedded in the representative system of both liberal and emerging Islamic democracies. Hence, there is a call for "real democracy" beyond the traditional liberal economic framework, that poses the same structural limit to both Islamic and liberal democracies. The central objective of the project addresses the issues of inequality and social justice within the framework of Islamic and liberal democratic theories and political practices: firstly, by analysing the normative theoretic grounds of both political concepts contemporary liberal democracy and modern Islamic democracy in a comparative manner, focusing on the role of inequality in both theoretical narratives; secondly, by examining the inferences of globalisation, institutional change and financial crisis with democratic theories concerned; and thirdly, by searching for the shared understanding of what "real democracy" should comprise in the eyes of Arab and Western social movements.

A serial of revolutionary events started to spread over the Middle East and North African region in Spring 2011. These events raised hopes in an almost overnight democratization of this region. Once again, the revolutionary uprisings were dubbed "Spring" echoing enthusiastic hopes, similar to those of 1848 or in 1968 in Europe, in which political revolutions were seen as radical turning points towards more just and democratic societies. With Egypts violent counter-revolution of July, 3 and August 14 of 2013 that returned that country to military dictatorship and with the tragic developments in Syria it has become clear that the "Arab Spring" can not deliver on hopes set into it. The events surrounding the rise and subsequent fall of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt were testimonials of the continuing undiminished quest for "real democracy" and "social justice". The post-Arab Spring social demands, such as those articulated by the general strike of the Egyptian worker unions, social unrests as the consequence of the failed attempt of the Brotherhood to achieve social consent among Egyptians and finally a de facto military coup in Egypt unveiled the lacking ability of the Brotherhood and their concept of Islamic democracy to sustain a durable and stabile government. This project addresses the issues of inequality and social justice within the framework of Islamic and liberal democratic theories and political practices: firstly, by analysing the normative theoretic grounds of both political concepts - contemporary liberal democracy and modern Islamic democracy - in a comparative manner, focusing on the role of inequality in both theoretical narratives; secondly, by examining the reasons for the failure of Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood to raise up to the demands of Egyptian labour movement and religious minorities and their consequent inability to hold the power; and thirdly, by searching for the shared understanding of what "real democracy" should comprise in the eyes of Arab and Western social movements.