Political Ideology in the Arab World: Accommodation and Transformation

Arab nationalism and Islamism have been the two most potent ideological forces in the Arab region across the twentieth century. Over the last two decades, however, an accommodation of sorts has been developing between liberals, socialists and Islamists, to protest unpopular foreign and domestic policies, such as those aimed at cooperation with Israel or the war in Iraq. By examining the writings of Arab nationalist, socialist and Islamist intellectuals, and through numerous interviews with political participants from different persuasions, Michaelle Browers traces these developments from the 'Arab age of ideology', as it has been called, through an 'age of ideological transformation', demonstrating clearly how the recent flow of ideas from one group to another have their roots in the past. Political Ideology in the Arab World assesses the impact of ideological changes on Egypt's Kifaya! [Enough!] movement and Yemen's joint meeting parties.

Michaelle L. Browers is Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Wake Forest University. Her recent publications include Democracy and Civil Society in Arab Political Thought: Transcultural Possibilities (2006) and An Islamic Reformation? (with Charles Kurzman, 2004).