The Maldives: New Stresses in an Old Nation

Maloney, Clarence

doi:10.1525/as.1976.16.7.01p0203b

Cited by 4 publications

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“…O sultanato foi transformado em república em 1968 sob a presidência de Ibrahim Nasir. Até as décadas de 1960 e 1970, o islamismo sunita vivenciado no país apresentava particularidades que o aproximava mais das experiências religiosas do norte da África do que da Península Arábica, considerado, logo, mais flexível e aberto aos aportes estrangeiros e às persistências (ou resistências) pré-islâmicas (Koechlin, 1979;Orłowska, 2015;Maloney, 1976;Munch-Petersen, 1982).…”

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“…Em seu livro intitulado People of the Maldive Islands, publicado em 1980, mesclou dados arqueológicos, linguísticos e etnográficos para mostrar as evidências culturais de origem indiana (e budista) persistentes nas Maldivas, apesar do histórico de islamização das relações sociais e da colonização europeia. Descreveu ainda os primeiros impactos da modernização e do turismo nos modos de vida dos ilhéus, sobretudo dos mais jovens e das mulheres (Maloney, 1976). Munch-Petersen (1982), examinando as técnicas artesanais tradicionais e a vida cotidiana dos ilhéus, e Koechlin (1979), tratando da pesca, da fabricação de barcos e da relação com a economia local, relataram as mudanças em andamento acarretadas pelo incremento do turismo de luxo e pela rápida inserção do país na esfera da economia mundial.…”

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Política, religião e gênero nas Ilhas Maldivas

Gontijo

2019

Rev. antropol.

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Nas Ilhas Maldivas, há um nítido contraste entre, por um lado, o turismo organizado geralmente por agências internacionais de viagem voltado para ilhas ocupadas por hotéis luxuosos ou resorts, até pouco tempo a única forma de turismo permitida no país, e por outro, o turismo independente, recentemente permitido para a visitação de ilhas habitadas basicamente por pescadores. Uma legislação específica regulamenta as atividades nas ilhas-resorts, de cunho liberal, diferente daquela mais conservadora e baseada em preceitos islâmicos que regulamenta as relações sociais no restante do país. Essa dualidade – um país, duas legislações – pode ajudar a compreender a configuração histórica particular das relações de poder, assim como as interpretações das formas da experiência da religiosidade e as expressões de gênero, que estão na base da legitimação de ideologias conflituosas de elaboração da identidade nacional maldívia.

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Política, religião e gênero nas Ilhas Maldivas

Gontijo

2019

Rev. antropol.

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“…converted to a constitutional monarchy with a majlis 33 (legislature) and a cabinet of ministers (Maloney, 1976). This was seen as the renouncing of royal prerogatives which had been held for more than 800 years and a touch of democracy from the European countries (Hockly, 1935, p. 139).…”

Section: Political Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The short lived first republic ended and the sultanate was re-instated in March 1954 with a new constitution 36 (Maumoon, 2002). Interestingly the majlis, which mostly consisted of elected members, was retained with powers to override the sultan"s veto (Maloney, 1976).…”

Section: Political Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Civil service in an emerging democracy: the case of the Maldives

Faizal¹

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<p>The establishment of a statutory civil service has been an important element of democratisation in the small-island state of the Maldives, an emerging democracy. “Civil service”, “democratisation”, and “small-island states” are terms discussed widely in the contemporary literature, though not in an integrated manner. By synthesising these terms using relevant literature, in a case study approach with qualitative data, this study primarily aims to analyse the development of a civil service model as part of a process of democratisation in the Maldives. The study also aims to identify how certain features of small-island states could affect both democratisation and the development of a civil service in the Maldives. The analysis reveals five main findings. Firstly, the development of the civil service model and the negotiation of the civil service Act were part of the democratisation process but were in the hands of political elites and involved no wider public participation. This was consistent with Welzel's model of mass responsive democratisation and Huntington's transplacement model - which proposes that while mass protests and other expressions of opinion are important in triggering democratisation processes, these processes are at some stage moved forward by negotiation or consensus within or between elites. Secondly, the civil service Act that emerged was a mix of pre-existing codes of practice which had some specifically Maldivian elements but drew on other regional administrative codes, together with borrowings based on research into the current civil service laws of other countries. The result was a law which was founded on some principles commonly described as “Weberian” but adapted to Maldivian circumstances. Thirdly, the choices that the lawmakers made regarding the civil service model were motivated by a number of different considerations but the dominant agenda was securing a politically neutral civil service largely insulated from the direct patronage of the political executive. This was a result of a wider elite negotiation on the future extent of executive power. Thus, the issue in drafting that turned out to be most important was setting the boundary between the political arm and administrative arm of the executive; many detailed provisions that were not relevant to the dominant agenda were carried over from previous Maldivian codes or drawn from the codes of other jurisdictions, in either case with little debate. Fourthly, the transition to democracy is not complete in the Maldives. The process is still relatively unstable and fragile. In particular, although the civil service is now more firmly founded in law and there is less scope for arbitrary political intervention, there is a continuing contest between the political arm and the administrative arm of the executive over the boundaries between them. This ongoing contest continues to be critical for the prospects of stable democratisation. Lastly, islandness and smallness did not have a major direct bearing on the process of democratisation in the Maldives, although islandness was to some extent a factor in the design of the constitutional architecture. Furthermore, smallness and social cohesiveness is presently not enough to counter the growing polarisation of society which may constitute a threat to the stability of this fragile emerging democracy. The Maldives being a small-island state did not have a significant impact on the choice of the civil service model. Nonetheless, the social closeness of the small Maldivian society may inhibit the separation of public and private life that is important for institutionalising a professional civil service. These findings and others in this research add to the body of exemplary knowledge regarding the relationship between the main theoretical concepts of civil service, democratisation, and small-island states, and demonstrate that the framework developed from this scholarship is useful for other case studies embodying similar concepts.</p>

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Religion and authoritarianism in the Maldives: Is another authoritarian reversal in the Maldives imminent?

Bhim

2024

World Affairs

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The Maldives commenced its transition to democracy after its first multiparty elections in 2008. This was challenging due to the Maldives being a Muslim nation, its authoritarian legacy of monarchical rule before independence, and by dictatorship after independence. This article analyzes the postindependence rule periods of Ibrahim Nasir and Maumoom Abdul Gayoom, which were akin to one‐man dictatorships. The third autocratic president postindependence, Abdulla Yameen, was an electoral authoritarian as he implemented authoritarian measures in a multi‐party context. I assess if religion provided political legitimacy to these authoritarian leaders or if religion was exploited by leaders to gain political support and civic spaces. Theories of authoritarianism, religious populism, electoral authoritarianism, as well as concepts of the ulema‐state alliance and the rentier state are utilized. In addition to their authoritarian legacy, democratic presidents like Mohamed Nasheed and Mohamed Solih had grappled with politicians' manipulation of religion through political Islam, Islamic nationalism, and fundamentalism to derail democracy by equating it to Westernization. These events resonate with Samuel Huntington's description of the conflict between the West and Islam as a clash of civilizations. Crimes against liberal thinkers by Islamic extremists are an added challenge. There is a real danger of another authoritarian reversal in the Maldives.

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The Maldives: New Stresses in an Old Nation

Cited by 4 publications

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Política, religião e gênero nas Ilhas Maldivas

Política, religião e gênero nas Ilhas Maldivas

Civil service in an emerging democracy: the case of the Maldives

Religion and authoritarianism in the Maldives: Is another authoritarian reversal in the Maldives imminent?

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