Political Sciences

Abstract There is no doubt that one of the most contentious terrains of contestation in the supposed clash of values between Islamism and western values is the role of women in society. Thus, the issue of women's rights has become the litmus test for Arab societies with respect to the current zeitgeist of human rights in the age of democracy and liberalism. There is today a stereotypical view of debates surrounding women's rights in the Arab world where two distinct camps are in conflict with each other. On the one hand there are 'globalised' ...

The uprisings of the Arab Spring have highlighted the weakness of traditional opposition actors that have been unable to predict and lead the revolutions. This paper, focusing on the case of Morocco, examines how the discourses and practices of the regime shaped the complex field of Political Islam, contributing to two distinct but interlinked phenomena. On the one hand, they have managed to lead Islamists and liberal secularists to overcome many of their previous divisions to sustain common battles in the name of democracy and human ...

How do authoritarian regimes adapt to the challenges that population
movement poses? This article identifies a kind of control mechanism that, despite not being authoritarian in essence, may represent an asset for authoritarian regimes in search of new control tools in a global age. The analysis of an authoritarian regime’s use of new sophisticated techniques of ‘participation’ demonstrates how the creation of a participatory institution can work as a mechanism that offers participation while denying representation. By outlining the political dynamics that took place between the Moroccan authoritarian regime and its population abroad during the 2011 constitutional reform process, this article shows how the creation of a participatory institution, the Council for the Moroccan Community Abroad, provided the regime with a powerful and effective tool of control over Moroccans abroad. More specifically, it demonstrates how, paradoxically, the creation of an emigration-related consultative institution has hindered the possibility of Moroccans abroad to achieve meaningful political participation. The Moroccan case study demonstrates that an authoritarian regime in a
global age can successfully convert a loud horizontal voice from abroad into a not very loud vertical one through a ‘participation’ process.

How do authoritarian regimes use their international activities to boost legitimacy at home? The mechanisms that connect authoritarian international activities and domestic legitimation remain understudied. This essay sets out to fill this gap by presenting an attempt at creating a theory about the phenomenon-the dynamic legitimation model. This model connects two distinct actions: on the one hand, authoritarian elites observe the international context and produce discourses and policies that aim to create a positive country image, or brand. On the other hand, authoritarian leaders use the international recognition they consequently obtain to legitimize their rule at home, by presenting themselves as internationally praised role models. As in a hall of mirrors, the recognition achieved in the international context is discursively translated into evidence of good performance in front of the domestic population. The essay demonstrates this argument by illustrating how two contemporary authoritarian regimes, Morocco and Kazakhstan, actively try to conform to international discourses on religion, particularly regarding the promotion of moderate Islam and interfaith dialogue, while adapting their strategies to the situation at home. In addition, it shows how they capitalize on the praise they obtain in the attempt to boost legitimacy at home.

This article explores Habermas’s recent political writings in which he proposes a thin post-national model of political integration for Europe. Whilst sympathetic to Habermas’s undertakings, this article argues that there are certain unresolved tensions within these writings between his thin proceduralist model of European integration and his appeals to a thicker European self-understanding. The conclusion to be drawn from this, the author argues, is that Habermas should have remained faithful to his thin proceduralist account rather than turning to the question of European identity.

Using the example of contemporary Islamic fundamentalism, and especially the writings of Sayyid Qutb, this article raises questions about discourse ethics as a mode of conflict resolution. It appears that discourse ethics is only relevant when all parties have already agreed to settle disputes deliberatively and already share the notions of rational
deliberation and individual autonomy. This raises questions not only about the capability of discourse ethics to incorporate a deep plurality of worldviews, but also about its capability to successfully solve disputes. When confronting situations where the willingness to deliberate is absent, discourse ethics is left standing empty handed. This, I argue, is due to both the conceptual distinction between communicative action and strategic action, as well as the abstracted nature of Habermas’s discourse ethics.