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Association Lecture—The Economic Roots of Political Underdevelopment in the Middle East: A Historical Perspective
Author(s) -
Kuran Timur
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
southern economic journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.762
H-Index - 58
eISSN - 2325-8012
pISSN - 0038-4038
DOI - 10.4284/0038-4038-78.4.1086
Subject(s) - underdevelopment , islam , politics , democracy , political economy , state (computer science) , corporate governance , civil society , state formation , political science , economics , sociology , law , finance , philosophy , theology , algorithm , computer science
Key institutions of the pre‐modern Middle Eastern economy, all grounded in Islamic law, blocked the development of democratic institutions. This talk identifies three mechanisms that played critical roles. Islam's original tax system failed to produce lasting and credible constraints on governance. The waqfs (Islamic trusts) founded to provide social services to designated constituencies were politically powerless. Profit‐making private enterprises remained small and ephemeral, hindering the formation of stable coalitions capable of bargaining with the state. The last two mechanisms jointly delayed the rise of a civil society able to provide the checks and balances essential to democratic rule.