CIVIL SOCIETY AND CITIZENSHIP
Comparing Western and Middle Eastern Experiences

Content | Books | Grading | Writing | New Resources

Weeks 1-4 | Weeks 5-8 | Weeks 9-12 | Weeks 13-15

THE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN
TC 357, Plan II honors seminar (also open to Gov and MES students who can do honors work)
Spring 2009: unique no. 42800
Seminar meets Tu &Th 3:30 to 4:45 p.m. UTC 4.120
Instructor: Clement M. Henry, Batts 4.152, chenry@mail.utexas.edu
Office hrs TTh 2-3:30, or by appt. (232-7210), or -better- by e-mail. 
  
 
Content
"Civil society," like "democracy," is resonating strongly across cultures, but it may require redefinition if it is to engender new publicly shared meanings and significant social and political change in either the Middle East or the West. Mainstream American political science defines civil society as a broad spectrum of secondary associations, ranging from political parties and pressure groups to sporting clubs, and postulates these intermediaries to be the bedrock of democracy. A strong and "vibrant" civil society is supposed to underpin responsible citizenship and make democratic forms of government work. Conversely, a weak civil society is supposed to support authoritarian rule which keeps society weak. By this logic most Middle Eastern societies appeared to be caught in a vicious circle. And if a weakening of the "civility" of civil society invites more authoritarianism, then supposedly stable democracies like America's may also be in trouble.
 
This honors seminar will critically examine the concept of civil society both as it developed in the West and as it has traveled, more recently, to the Middle East. The western thinkers who articulated the concept also pioneered an orientalist tradition which idealizes the West at the expense of an allegedly absolutist, socially inert East. Students will read Montesquieu, Hegel, Tocqueville, Mill, and Marx to rediscover and critically analyze their conceptions of civil society. They will also read recent samples of Western and Middle Eastern discussions of civil society and try to develop a more universal concept.
 
The following questions will be raised: what do we mean by civil society? How do countries (or regions like southern Italy) develop civil societies? May it work in all cultures or must a culture be thoroughly "westernized" for the society to acquire a "civil" component? In particular, is civil society dependent upon an institutionalized separation of Church and State and a predominantly secular culture characteristic of western democracies? Is civil society developing new forms and meanings in the predominantly Muslim cultures of the Middle East? How may global communications affect the development of civil society? If civil society emerged in the West with the development of modern capitalism, how may the globalization of economic life be shaping civil societies today? How does civil society relate to the state and what does freedom of association entail? May civil society really teach people the art of association and civic virtue? In the contemporary world, whether in America or the Middle East, how is it possible for the average citizen to know or care enough to participate in political life? What remains of the liberal vision of well informed citizens shaping public choices? If mass participation is virtual and vicarious in much of the "real" world, is virtual participation becoming the reality of contemporary civil society? May the global information revolution be transforming civil society before our very eyes?
 
Books available for purchase (also, except for Abel's, on Reserve, PCL): *=priority, required reading 
Requirements and Grading
Internet Resources
This on-line syllabus has links to some of your required and recommended readings.
You are also expected to become familiar with the UNDP's Programme on Arab Governance - especially its civil society resources and essays on individual Arab countries. You may also usefully consult our MENA-politics resources and ASSR, where you will find references to servers from and about the various countries of the Middle East and North Africa, as well as news groups, archives, and other useful sources of general information. We are also interested in general references to "civil society" appearing on the Internet and in various electronic communities, like the Well, discussed in your on-line Rheingold reading.
  
Writing Exercises
Please be constantly writing your notes, reflections, and reactions to other students' reflections. Taken together, your electronic input will count for most of your class participation grade. Your comments and reactions will also help you develop ideas for the more formal written presentations. Just post your remarks to our Blackboard "Definitions/reflections" list under Communications. "Internet resources," "Short papers," "Term paper ideas," and "Term papers" are the other destinations for your writing exercises.
 
When you hear or read about an interesting definition of civil society, post it to "definitions, general ideas." One useful exercise, after class, is to summarize what you learned or wish you could have learned more about, opening the way to further class discussion. Post your observation to "Definitions/reflections." You may also take notes on your reading assignments and post them. And try comparing notes with your fellow students about your experiences of "civil society" in Austin or abroad.
 
I especially encourage you to explore the Internet resources about civil society that you will find on our home page--discussions of virtual community and "global civil society." When you discover an interesting home page, post its URL (http://....) and a brief comment to "Internet resources" on our home page.
 
You also have more formal written exercises. You are scheduled (see Schedule of Class Meetings and Assignments) to post one paper of up to 1000 words by Jan. 30, and an additional 3 to 6 pp. (1000-1500 words) by Feb. 6, on assigned topics. You will also be expected to write one more short paper on a topic of your choice, due March 27. You will post each of them to "short papers" on our home page. You will gradually build up your ideas for the term paper, sharing them and getting feedback from each other, by posting them to "term paper ideas." For instance, what would Tocqueville think of the arts of association driven by the new information technologies? Or: how may the Internet affect civil society in various Muslim countries? You may develop a term paper connecting some of your readings to new developments on the Internet.
 
Please post the final product to "term papers," due April 24. Each of you will then present a brief critique of one other's term paper, due May 1, to be posted to "Short Papers."
.
  
Schedule of Class Meetings and Assignments
 1st week (Jan. 16, 18): Civil Society, the West, and the Internet
Readings:
S.P. Huntington, " The Clash of Civilizations," Foreign Affairs, and the various replies, followed by Huntington's reply to his critics.
Fareed Zakaria, "The Rise of Illiberal Democracy," Foreign Affairs 76:6 (Nov-Dec 1997), 22-43
"The Solitary Bowler," The Economist, Feb 18, 1995
Robert Putnam, "Tuning In, Tuning Out" PS 28:4 (Dec. 1995), pp. 664-683
___, Bowling Alone (Simon and Schuster pb. 2001), pp. 148-180
 
2nd week (Jan. 23, 25): Various definitions of civil society: the West vs. the Rest? 
Readings:
Edward Said, "The Clash of Ignorance,"The Nation, Oct. 22, 2001.
Bryan Turner, "Orientalism and the Problem of Civil Society in Islam," in in Asaf Hussain, Robt Olson & Jamil Qureishi, ed., Orientalism, Islam, and Islamists (Amana, 1984)
Sami Zubaida, "Islam, the State & Democracy: Contrasting Conceptions of Society in Egypt," Middle East Report (Nov-Dec 1992), 2-10. [to get a sense of Saad eddin Ibrahim's conception of civil society, you could look at his Civil Society web site]
Yahya Sadowski, "The New Orientalism and the Democracy Debate," ibid (July-Aug 1993), 14-21 (3 meg pdf download).
Eva Bellin, "Civil Society" PS, Sept 1994, pp 509-510.
Salim Nasr, Arab Civil Societies and Public Governance Reform: An Analytic Framework and Overview (2005) -download
 

Writing: Write up to 1000 words on how some of the above authors might respond to Sam Huntington's "clash of civilizations?"--or (if you care to go out on a limb) how might a cultural conservative in a Muslim Middle Eastern country respond? Please post by Jan. 30 to "short papers" on our home page.

 
Suggested reading:
Zachary Lockman, Contending Visions of the ME: the history and politics of orientalism (Cambridge University Press, 2004)
Edward Said, Orientalism (1979)
______, Covering Islam (1983, 1996 or so)
Thierry Hentsch, Imagining the Middle East
Fuad Ajami, The Arab Predicament, 1981.
_________, Dream Palace of the Arabs : A Generation's Odyssey, 1999.
3rd week (Jan. 30, Feb 1): Mainstream Civil Society and Western Democracy:
how politics are supposed to work....
 
Reading:
Robert Putnam, Making Democracy Work, entire
4th Week (Feb. 6): Civil Society and Democracy?
Readings:
 
Sheri Berman, "Civil Society and the Collapse of the Weimar Republic," World Politics. April 1997, pp. 401-429
________, "Islamism, Revolution, and Civil Society," Perspectives in Politics, Vol. 1, No. 2 (2003)
Benjamin R. Barber, "Beyond Jihad Vs. McWorld," The Nation, Jan. 21, 2002
 
Writing: summarize Putnam's main points and present a brief evaluation of his argument (max 1500 words--6 pages). You may relate the discussion to the earlier one about the Clash of Civilizations--seen here in an Italian microcosm? Paper to be posted by Feb. 5 on Blackboard (short papers).
 
Suggested readings: Gabriel Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture
Antonio Gramsci, "Some Aspects of the Southern Question," in Quintin Hoare, ed., Selections from Political Writings, 1921-1926.
Freedom House, FREEDOM IN THE WORLD 2002: THE DEMOCRACY GAP
4th Week (Feb. 8): you get the day off!
5th week (Feb. 13, 15): Back to the classics: Democracy in America (and Despotism in Algeria)

Discussion of Tocqueville: what are voluntary associations supposed to accomplish? How about religion? Is civil religion necessary for a healthy civil society? How do different ethnic groups fit into Tocqueville's view of American democracy? (We will discuss his views of Algeria in class, and I can guide anyone interested to the French source). And a quick additional suggested reading about the media in Egypt today: Negar Azimi, Bloggers Against Torture, The Nation, Feb. 19, 2007.

Readings:

Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, or browse it and examine Pitts, Jennifer A. / Writings on empire and slavery. / Baltimore / 2001 DT 294 T63 2001 PCL Stacks, which translates Tocqueville's writings on Algeria.
Jennifer Pitts, Liberalism and empire: Tocqueville on Algeria, APSA 1999.

Vol One I:
ii. Origin of the Anglo-Americans, and the Importance of this Origin in Relation to their Future Condition.
iii. Social Condition of the Anglo-Americans.
ix. HOW IT CAN BE STRICTLY SAID THAT THE PEOPLE GOVERN IN THE UNITED STATES
x. PARTIES IN THE UNITED STATES
xi. Liberty of the Press in The United States.
xii. Political Associations in The United States.
xv. Unlimited Power of the Majrity in The United States, and its Consequences
xvii. Principal Causes which Serve to Maintain the Democratic Republic in The United States

Vol Two:

Part I
v. How Religion in The United States Avails itself of Democratic Tendencies.
vi. The Progress of Roman Catholicism in The United States
vii. What Causes Democratic Nations to Incline toward Pantheism

Part II
v.Of the Uses which the Americans Make of Public Associations
vi.Of the Relation of Public Associations and the Newspapers
vii.Relation of Civil to Political Associations
viii.How the Americans Combat Individualism by the Principle of Self-Interest Rightly Understood
ix.That the Americans Apply the Principle of Self-interest Rightly Understood to Religions Matters
x.Of the Taste for Physical Well-being in America
xi.Peculiar Effects of the Love of Physical Gratification in Democratic Times
xii.Why Some Americans Manifest a Sort of Spiritual Fanatacism
xiii.Why the Americans are so Restless in the Midst of their Prosperity
xiv.How the Taste for Physical Gratifications is United in America to Love of Freedom and Attention to Public Affairs
xv.How Religious Belief Sometimes Turns Americans to Immaterial Pleasures.

Part III
xxi. Why Democratic Nations Naturally Desire Peace, and Democratic Armies, War.
6th week (Feb. 20, 22): The Challenge of Islam to Civil Society
Discussion of Ibn Khaldun's analysis of fourteenth century dynasties, relations between cities and tribes, the nature of "group feeling" (asabiya) and the role of Islam in strengthening it. Gellner, influenced by Max Weber as well as Ibn Khaldun, doubts that civil society can find roots in Muslim society. What do you think of Gellner's argument?
Readings:
  • Ibn Khaldun, The Muqaddimah (abridged), 5-9, 91-101, 123-166, 230-259
  • @-#4 - Ernest Gellner, "The Importance of Being Modular," in John A. Hall, ed., Civil Society: Theory, History, Comparison (Polity Press, 1995), pp 32-55
  • @-#3 - S Chambers and W. Kymlicka, Alternative Conceptions of Civil Society (Princeton, 2002),. 13-33 (Adam Seligman, The Ideal of Civil Society), 171-189 (Hasan Hanafi, Alternative Conceptions of Civil Society: A Reflective Islamic Approach)
      
    Suggested:
    Ibn Khaldun biography (Encylopedia of Islam, 1999); webpage by Tim Spalding
Ernest Gellner, Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and its Rivals (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1994)
Max Weber, The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism
Bryan Turner, Weber and Islam
_________, Capitalism and Class in the Middle East
Olivier ROY: Radical neo-fundamentalists (2002)
 
Third short paper due March 26 on any topic of your choice - secularism and civil society, a critique of anti-orientalism, religion vs. civility, Muslim arts of association, virtual vs. real associations, whatever you care to write about….maybe toward the term paper. Please take a look at POGAR for quick analyses of civil society in the Arab world.
7th week (Feb. 27, March 1): "Islam is the Solution!"
Discussion of various currents of Islam. What is Islamic "fundamentalism" and how united are Islamist political movements? Under what conditions may the more flexible, "liberal" elements control the more radical elements?
 
Readings:
 
Suggested:
Leonard Binder, Islamic Liberalism
Ahmad Moussalli, Radical Islamic Fundamentalism: The Ideological and Political Discourse of Sayyid Qutb
Richard Bulliet, Islam : the view from the edge (1994)
Aziz Al-Azmeh, Islams and Modernities
Robert S. Leiken and Steven Brooke, " The Moderate Muslim Brotherhood," Foreign Affairs, March-April 2007.
 
Writing: handout Feb. 28 of take-home midterm due March 5, post to "short papers" (e-mail to spapers).
8th week (March 6, 8): Contemporary Civil Societies in the Middle East
Discussion of different country experiences: how is "civil society" being used to describe their respective political transitions? Contrast Gellner's usage with those of the author(s) you have selected in the Norton volumes. From your country study, what do you make of the Civicus Civil Society Index? Or pogar.org and the challenges of globalization?
 
Readings:
 
Suggested:
Daniel Cohen, Globalization and its Enemies, MIT Press, 2006
Frank Tachau, Political Parties of the Middle East and North Africa (Greenwood Press, 1994)
 
SPRING BREAK (March 12-16)

9th week (March 20, 22): The Algerian Exception?

Discussion of Algeria viewed by an Algerian influenced by Marx and Gramsci. How "exceptional" is Algeria? Does it offer insights into the politics of other countries in the region? Does civil society require an independent intelligentsia? What kind of economy is needed?
Readings:

Ali El Kenz, Algerian Reflections on Arab Crises (free class handout)

Clement Henry, "Algeria's Agonies: Oil Rent Effects in a Bunker State," Journal of North African Studies 9:2 (summer 2004), pp. 68-81
 
10th week (March 27, 29): The "Gentle" Commerce of Civil Society: preparations for citizenship and civic participation?
Discussion of contemporary forms of capitalism in Egypt, Algeria, etc. in light of 18th century views of its civilizing effects. Montesquieu thought that the merchants' ability to deploy and relocate capital (capital flight) was a decisive weapon of political reform. What do you think about relationships between debt and development in the countries you are studying?
Readings:
Montesquieu, Spirit of the Laws, Books 20 and 21 (about gentle commerce)
Clement Henry, Islamic Financial Movements: Midwives of Political Change in the Middle East? presented to APSA August 30, 2001.
 
Suggested:
 
Albert O. Hirschman, The Passions and the Interests, pp. 67-113
Marvin B. Becker, The Emergence of Civil Society in the Eighteenth Century, Indiana UP 1994 
Adam B. Seligman, The Idea of Civil Society
 
Writing due March 26: 3rd short paper (beginning your term paper)

11th week (April 3, 5): The Economic Roots of Civil Society

Discussion: What was "civil society" in early nineteenth century Prussia and how might it compare to a contemporary Middle Eastern society? We look at Egypt and Morocco because their associations have been carefully studied. Dare we compare Hegel's "estates" with Egypt's trade unions and professional syndicates? What about the Marxist critique: civil society=bourgeois society? Parallels with Egypt can be pursued: Hegel's political stratum mediating between state and civil society was the Prussian Junkers gentry; we can also trace the rise and fall of large landownership in Egypt....and Binder's analysis of Egypt's "second stratum." Moroccan parallels: the makhzan and colonial land development.
Reading:
@-5 Hegel, Philosophy of Right, pp. x-xi, 122-154 and notes pp 267-278.
@ Marx, Critique of Hegel's 'Philosophy of Right', pp. 90-121, 131-142
 

Suggested:

Leonard Binder, In a Moment of Enthusiasm: Political Power and the Second Stratum in Egypt
Robert Bianchi, Unruly Pluralism
Jeff Faux, The Global Class War Wiley, 2006
12th week (April 10, 12): What is public opinion? Interactive publics or manipulated masses?
Discussion: Back to the "solitary bowler"--who cares about what in the contemporary world and how free are we to develop and express our opinions? Look at John Stuart Mill's classic defense of civil society and why (late in chaps 3 and 5) it is likely to fail in non-Western countries. Habermas suggests that these public spaces for bourgeois deliberation have become mass consumer markets, endangering the very existence of civil society. Is there an emerging Arab public sphere? How manipulated?
Readings:
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty --skim to ends of chaps 3 and 5...and maybe in Representative Government (optional scan).
Jürgen Habermas, Structural Transformation, pp. 57-88 ,102-140, 181-250
@#8 - A. Salvatore and M LeVine, Intro to Reconstructing the Public Sphere in Muslim Majority Societies, pp. 1-17; Dyala Hamzah, Is there an Arab Public Sphere? The Palestinian Intifada, a Saudi Fatwa, and the Egyptian Press, pp. 181-206
 
Suggested: 
James H. Fishkin, Democracy and Deliberation (Yale UP, 1991)
_____, The Voice of the People (Yale UP 1995)
Hannah Arendt, The Human Condition, pp. 22-78
Jürgen Habermas, “Civil Society and the Public Sphere,” in Between Facts and Norms: Contributions to a Discourse Theory of Law and Democracy, pp. 329-387
13th week (April 17, 19): Virtual Communities and Global Interactions: From Citizenship to Netizenship?
Discussion: What are the significant differences between "virtual" and "real" societies?....and between "virtual" and "real" civil society? If most participation is virtual and vicarious in large impersonal societies, is virtual participation becoming the reality of contemporary civil society? Please help me to rephrase these thoughts.
Readings:
Sudney Tarrow, The New Transnational Activism (Cambridge UP, 2005) pp. TBA
Jodi Dean et al, Reformatting Politics, Routledge 2006
 
Suggested: 
Democratizing the Middle East? - Fares Center, Tufts, Occasional Paper No. 2 (2006)
Carnegie Foundation, Arab Reform Bulletin
Rheingold, The Virtual Community, chaps 1, 2, 4, 9, esp. 10 (on-line at http://www.rheingold.com/vc/book/).
Lori Wallach, "Interview: Lori's War," Foreign Policy, summer 2000.
Stephen J. Kobrin, "The MAI and the Clash of Globalizations," Foreign Policy, Fall 1998, 97-109.
14th week (April 24, 26): The Internet in the Middle East: an information revolution?
Readings:
@#1 - Jon W. Anderson and Yves Gonzalez-Quijano, Technological Mediation and the Emergence of Transnational Muslim Publics, in A. Salvatore and D. F. Eickelman, eds., Public Islam and the Common Good (Leiden: Brill, 2004)
@#2 - Gary Bunt, Virtually Islamic, 90-103, 132-144
Clement Henry, Tunisia's "Sweet Little Rogue" Regime, to appear in Robert Rotberg ed., Repessive and Rogue Regimes, Brookings, 2007
 
Term paper due April 24 (two hard copies, please, in addition to posting it to Blackboard)
15th week (May 1, 3): Civil Society and Democracy in the Middle East?
Discussion of our seminar findings about civil society. Will the Internet have a creative impact upon the civil societies of the Middle East and North Africa?
 
Critique of someone else's term paper due April 30.
10 December 2008
Department of Government, College of Liberal Arts, University of Texas at Austin.
Questions, Comments, and Suggestions to chenry@mail.utexas.edu
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