The Fall and Rise of the Islamic State by Feldman Noah

Author:Feldman, Noah
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Published: 2008-09-22T04:00:00+00:00

Executive Dominance

If there is a single characteristic feature of the states that arose in the wake of the collapse of the Ottoman Empire over the course of the twentieth century, it is undoubtedly an unchecked executive dominating the rest of the government and, through it, society itself. In almost all cases, the first form of government following the empire was some sort of monarchy under foreign tutelage. Typically, though not exclusively, the monarchy failed and was replaced by a president or other strongman. The exemplar of this sort of government is Egypt, and the dictator-executive who set the mold was Gamal Abdel Nasser; but the model has applied to varying degrees in Syria, Iraq, Libya, Algeria, and Tunisia, to name just the most important examples. In a few cases—Morocco and Jordan—the monarchy survived, but only where it was successful in dominating the state and society in much the way that the presidents have done in the nonmonarchic states.

Why have these states—in particular the Arabic-speaking states of the former Ottoman Empire—been so susceptible in the last hundred years to executive dominance? Why have none of these states featured a powerful legislature or an effective, independent judiciary capable of counterbalancing the executive?36 One possible answer to this question is that there is nothing special about these states in particular. The combination of standing armies and an apparatus of state intelligence has enabled quasi-military dictators to rule countries from Latin America to Africa to Asia. Local economic conditions and political cultures always differ, of course. As a result, the Latin American caudillo relies on different political symbols and rhetoric from those that characterize the Arab ra’is. But both, according to this view, are exemplars of executive power in its most potent and least limited form. It helps to have sources of revenue beyond taxes, whether in the form of oil or other mineral rents or in the form of direct payments from richer states around the world in search of allies. Even without these, however, a creative and charismatic leader may manage to keep his hands firmly on the helm of the ship of state, and to be removed only by his death, whether natural or unnatural.

No doubt there are some constant features of dictatorial executive power that can be identified across countries and political cultures. In every case, however, there will have to be some explanation of why political arrangements have become configured as they have. In most cases—certainly including many of those in Latin America and Africa—the legacy of colonialism assures that there will never have been any institutional model of balanced or divided government at the national level, except perhaps briefly and on paper at the moment of liberation from colonial rule. Neither will the rule of law have been much respected in the history of most such countries.

If the period of British and French colonialism in the Arab world is taken as the starting point of our analysis, then the same observation could be extended to states like Iraq or Syria, which never had effective counterbalances to executive power in the modern period.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.