Response to Eva Bellin, Ellen Lust, and Marc Lynch

Howard, Marc Morjé; Walters, Meir R.

doi:10.1017/s1537592714000930

Cited by 16 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…However, while authoritarian resistance has been examined by numerous scholars, notable among them Eva Bellin, who focuses on the extensive will and capacity of the coercive apparatus in Arab states as making them exceptional, new approaches are necessary. 62 Repression is one such approach and there is little work done on how long-term changes of repression occur in countries that have experienced a shift in protectors. For a country like Bahrain, which suffers from a position of sovereign insecurity (an inherent dependence on the protection of larger states or entities), repression is crucial in understanding how international factors influence internal repression.…”

Section: Why Repression?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Repression in Bahrain

Jones¹

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Section: Why Repression?mentioning

confidence: 99%

Political Repression in Bahrain

Jones¹

2020

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The institutionalist focus of applied research designs in the study of democratisation in the Arab states has been historically unsuccessful in accounting for or describing non-institutional political actions. Comparative politics and political science approaches have contributed to the study of the region’s ‘democratic deficit’ through the issues of ‘rentier economies’, ‘electoral institutions’, ‘coercive state apparatuses’, ‘strategic aid’ and ‘civil society’ (Howard and Walters, 2014: 417). Yet, a narrow focus on regime type as the unit of comparison ‘fails to capture really interesting dynamics within cases, including in-case variation’ (Howard and Walters, 2014: 418).…”

Section: Habermas’ Public Sphere Transformation and The Arab Middle mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Comparative politics and political science approaches have contributed to the study of the region’s ‘democratic deficit’ through the issues of ‘rentier economies’, ‘electoral institutions’, ‘coercive state apparatuses’, ‘strategic aid’ and ‘civil society’ (Howard and Walters, 2014: 417). Yet, a narrow focus on regime type as the unit of comparison ‘fails to capture really interesting dynamics within cases, including in-case variation’ (Howard and Walters, 2014: 418). This misses ‘how discourses (by regimes as well as their challengers) adopt new tropes, draw reference to similar justifications, and so on’ (Schwedler, 2012: 58).…”

Section: Habermas’ Public Sphere Transformation and The Arab Middle mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, the Arab Spring, which caught most observers by surprise, 5 has drawn contradictory conclusions about its ‘true’ political significance. Even something as unprecedented and consciously political as these revolutionary movements can be construed as having had no great significance for democratisation (Howard and Walters, 2014: 417) or as a ‘re-politicised Arab world’s transition to somewhere’ (Valbjørn, 2012: 29). 6…”

Section: Habermas’ Public Sphere Transformation and The Arab Middle mentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The conceptual public sphere and its problems: Habermas, political action and the Arab states

Abbott

2016

Journal of International Political Theory

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The main purpose of this article is to examine how Habermas' account of the transformation of the public sphere is used in the study of political change in the Arab states of the Middle East. The study aims to demonstrate that while Habermas' motif may provide several constructive pathways forward for the study of transformation in this regional context, its numerous shortcomings leave it susceptible to conceptual overstretch. With the aim of showing this, the article is divided into three sections. The first section shows how the concept has been applied. The second engages critically with the prominent account of the Arab public sphere by reflecting on (1) its methodological assumptions, (2) its empirical claims and (3) its own political role. The third section explores the shortcomings of Habermas' account and how these present difficulties when making empirical claims about political action and transformation in the Arab states of the Middle East.

show abstract

Eine Schwalbe macht noch keinen Frühling: Die arabischen Umbrüche in der politikwissenschaftlichen Literatur

Grimm

2015

Z Vgl Polit Wiss

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Zusammenfassung Seit den Umbrüchen von 2011 ist der zuvor als stabil angenommene Arabische Raum zurück in den Fokus der Vergleichenden Regimeforschung gerückt, welche die Transformationsprozesse, die vielerorts Volksaufständen folgten, vorwiegend unter dem Gesichtspunkt von Demokratisierung betrachtet. Der Erkenntnisgewinn dieses Zugangs ist unter Regionalforschern allerdings umstritten, die auf die Multidirektionalität und -Dimensionalität der arabischen Umbrü-che hinweisen, die von Land zu Land äußerst unterschiedlich verlaufen sind. Dies ist nicht nur eine Folge verschiedenartiger struktureller Dispositionen, etwa hinsichtlich Regimetypus oder der Organisation von Machtzugängen. Vielmehr ist die hohe Varianz unter den Transformationspfaden, die die arabischen Gesellschaften eingeschlagen haben, vor allem das Ergebnis von Machtkämpfen zwischen Protestakteuren, Regimeeliten und ihren Sicherheitsorganen. Neben den Aktivisten der Volksaufstände haben sich in den vergangenen vier Jahren besonders die nationalen Armeen, und islamistische Vereinigungen als Kernakteure in den Transformationsdynamiken erwiesen. Dieser Beitrag präsentiert einen Überblick über die relevante Forschungsliteratur, die seit dem Arabischen Frühling innovative Perspektiven auf diese vielschichtigen Wandlungsprozesse geliefert und zu ihrem besseren Verständ-nis beigetragen hat.Schlüsselwörter Arabischer Frühling · Transition und Transformation · Akteure im Transformationsprozess · Autokratie · Mobilisierung 2 J. Grimm 3Abstract The upheavals of 2011 have catapulted the Arab World-once thought to be exceptionally stable-back onto the agenda of regime studies. Democratization quickly moved to become the dominant paradigm for comparative research on the transformation processes that followed the popular uprisings in many countries of the region. The insights generated by such a perspective are however limited. Region experts emphasize that the Arab transformations have unfolded in a very multidirectional and multidimensional way. In fact, trajectories of change differ significantly over the region. This diversity cannot be attributed solely to the divergent structural dispositions of the countries in question, such as varying regime types or different ways of organizing access to power. Instead, recent publications stress that the high variance in the preliminary outcomes of the Arab transitions is primarily a result of the contingent power struggles between protest actors, regime elites and security forces that have played out differently from country to country. During the past 4 years, apart from the revolutionary activists, especially the national Arab armies and Islamist groups have crystallized as key actors in the transition dynamics. This article provides an overview of the relevant scholarly literature that offers innovative perspectives and contributes to a better understanding of the Arab Spring.

show abstract

Response to Eva Bellin, Ellen Lust, and Marc Lynch

Cited by 16 publications

References 23 publications

Political Repression in Bahrain

Political Repression in Bahrain

The conceptual public sphere and its problems: Habermas, political action and the Arab states

Eine Schwalbe macht noch keinen Frühling: Die arabischen Umbrüche in der politikwissenschaftlichen Literatur

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About