Changing capitalism in the Arab and Muslim World

Abstract

As the ‘Arab Spring’ turns into winter, the literature on the causes of the revolts and their aftermath has grown steadily. The general thrust of most books is that the 2011 Arab uprisings exposed the corrupt relations between state and economic elites and other underlying social dislocations in many of the affected states. After the initial hopes that these uprisings would generate a fourth wave of democratization, analysts such as Adeed Dawisha, in The Second Arab Awakening (2013), concluded wisely that the jury is still out on whether the upheavals will lead to democracy or not. It is, however, certain that the Arab uprisings have stimulated a revival in interest in the political-economic foundations of the region’s authoritarian regimes even though lately the interest has understandably shifted to the security threats posed by Islamic State (IS) and other extremist organizations. One approach that differs from the mainstream focuses on the role that capitalism plays in setting internal conditions for the distribution of economic and political power, and how it affects the external conditions that impinge on the sovereignty of the nation-state. This review comprises three books that, from very different perspectives, emphasize the impact of capital on the current state of (some) Arab countries and the Muslim world in general.