CIVIL SOCIETY IN THE MIDDLE EAST

PSIR515

Course Code: PSIR515
Semester: -
Theory+Practice: 3 + 0
ECTS: 10

Course Type

Elective Course

Course Level

Master's Degree With Thesis

Year of Study

Semester

ECTS

Name of Lecturer(s)

Professor Banu Eligür

Learning Outcomes

At the end of this course, the students;

are introduced with the concept 'civil society' and learn its relation with democracy.
examine the concept 'civil society' within the scope of Middle East.
analyze the civil society-democracy relation in the Middle East and Northern Africa with regard to the cases of Turkey, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Palestine and Israel.

Mode of Delivery

Face to face

Prerequisites

Recommended Optional Programme Components

No recommended optional programme components.

Course Description

The issue of democratization in the Middle East has been discussed continuously since the end of the Cold War. While, the course compares the concept of civil society in the Middle East with the one in the West, it analyses the question to what extent civil society can speed up democratization in the region. This course has three main aims: The first one is by introdu-cing students the concept of civil society to teach them its relation to democracy. The second is to analyse the concept of civil society in the context of the Middle East. The third is to analyse the relationship between civil society and democracy in the Middle East and North Africa by addressing the examples of Türkiye, Egypt, Jordan, Iran, Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Palestine, and Israel.

Course Contents

WEEK	TOPICS
1^st Week	Introduction to Course: What is civil society?
2^nd Week	Relations between civil society and democracy: What is the relationship between civil society and democracy? Is civil society is a concept belonging only to the Western world?
3^rd Week	Theoretical Views I: Civil society is a concept foreign to Middle East
4^th Week	Theoretical Views I: Civil society is a concept that is a part of Middle East
5^th Week	Türkiye
6^th Week	Egypt I
7^th Week	Egypt II
8^th Week	Jordan
9^th Week	Iran I
10^th Week	Iran II
11^th Week	Algeria
12^th Week	Tunisia
13^th Week	Morocco
14^th Week	Palestine and Israel

Recommended or Required Reading

Amyn Sajoo (ed.), Civil Society in the Muslim World (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004).
Don E. Eberly (ed.), The Essential Civil Society: The Classic Essays (Lanham: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000), 1. Bölüm, ss. 3-29.
Edward Shils and Steven Grosby, The Virtue of Civil Society: Selected Essays on Liberalism, Tradition, and Civil Society (Indianapolis: Liberty Fund, 1997), 9. Bölüm, ss. 320-355.
Larry Diamond, Rethinking Civil Society: Toward Democratic Consolidation, Journal of De-mocracy 5, no. 3 (July 1994), ss. 4-17.
Elisabeth Özdalga and Sune Persson (eds.), Civil Society, Democracy, and the Muslim World (Istanbul: Swedish Research Institute, 1997), 1., 2., 6., 7. ve 9. Bölümler, ss. 1-7, 9-15, 45-53, 55-61, 73-84.
Eva Bellin, The Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East, Comparative Politics 36, no. 2 (January 2004), ss. 139-157.
Eva Bellin, Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East, Comparati-ve Politics 44, no. 2 (January 2012), ss. 127-149.
Ernest Gellner, Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and Its Rivals (New York: Penguin Bo-oks, 1994), 3., 6. ve 25. Bölümler, ss. 15-29, 50-52 ve 190-196.
John Hall (ed.), Civil Society: Theory, History, Comparison (Cambridge: Polity Press, 1995), 12. Bölüm, ss. 278-300.
Laith Kubba, Arabs and Democracy: The Awakening of Civil Society, Journal of Democracy 11, no. 3 (July 2000), ss. 84-90.
Mehran Kamrava, The Middle East's Democracy Deficit in Comparative Perspective, Perspec-tives on Global Development and Technology 6 (2007), ss. 189-213.
Augustus R. Norton (ed.), Civil Society in the Middle East Vol 2, 3. Bölüm, ss. 87-118.
Mattei Dogan and Ali Kazancıgil (eds.), Comparing Nations: Concepts, Strategies, Substance (Oxford: Cambridge University Press, 1994), 5. Bölüm, ss. 213-238.
Ali Çarkoğlu and Cerem Cenker, On the Relationship between Democratic Institutionalization and Civil Society Involvement: New Evidence from Turkey, Democratization 18, no. 3 (June 2011), ss. 751-773.
Augustus R. Norton (ed.), Civil Society in the Middle East, vol. 1, 4., 5., 8. ve 9. Bölümler, ss. 120-147, 148-185, 243-268 ve 269-293.
Maha Abdelrahman, Civil Society Exposed: The Politics of NGOs in Egypt (London: I. B. Tauris, 2004), 4. Bölüm, ss. 76-119.
Deniz Sullivan and Sana Abed-Kotob, Islam in Contemporary Egypt: Civil Society vs. the State (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1999), 1., 2. ve 6. Bölümler, ss. 1-17, 19-39 ve 121-138.
Sheri Berman, Islamism, Revolution, and Civil Society, Perspectives in Politics 1, no. 2 (June 2003), ss. 257-272.
Vickie Langohr, Too Much Civil Society, Too Little Politics: Egypt, Comparative Politics 36, no. 2 (2004), ss. 181-204.
Maha Abdel Rahman, The Politics of uncivil Society in Egypt, Review of African Political Economy 91 (2002), ss. 21-36.
Samuel Tadros, The Coptic Winter, National Review 63, no. 21 (November 14, 2011), ss. 25-26.
Richard Antoun, Civil Society, Tribal Process, and Change in Jordan: An Anthropological View, International Journal of Middle East Studies 32, no. 4 (November 2000), ss. 441-463.
Basma bin Talal, Rethinking an NGO: Development, Donors, and Civil Society inJordan (London: I.B. Tauris, 2004), 2. Bölüm, ss. 41-93.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Lecture
Discussion
Presentation

Assessment Methods and Criteria

	Quantity	Percentage (%)
Assignment	3	25
Project	1	50
Oral Exam	15	25
Total(%)		100
Contribution of In-term Studies to Overall Grade(%)		100
Contribution of Final Examination to Overall Grade(%)		0
Total(%)		100

ECTS Allocated Based on Student Workload

Activities	Quantity	Duration (Hour)	Total Workload (Hour)
Midterm exam
Preparation for Quiz
Individual or group work	14	6	84
Preparation for Final exam
Course hours	14	3	42
Preparation for Midterm exam
Laboratory (including preparation)
Final exam
Homework	3	40	120
Project	1	60	60
Total Work Load			306
Total Work Load / 30 (h)			10.2
ECTS Credit of the Course			10

Language of Instruction

Turkish

Work Placement(s)

Programme Qualifications / Learning Outcomes

	LO1	LO2	LO3
K1		X	X
K2	X		X
K3			X
K4	X	X	X
K5	X		X
K6	X	X	X
K7
K8			X