GOVT 270: Comparative Politics of the Middle East
Fall 2013
Professor Marcie J. Patton
Office Hours: Thurs. 4-5:30 pm
Room: PAC 315; Phone: x2951
Email: mjpatton@wesleyan.edu or mpatton@fairfield.edu
Course description and objectives: This course introduces students to aspects of the cultures, politics,
religions, and economies of the modern Middle East. What is everyday life like for millions of Middle
Easterners? Why is an “us vs. them” dichotomy facile and reductionist? How has the region been formed
and shaped by colonialism, political Islam, democratization, oil, the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, revolution,
and war? What conditions and circumstances led to civil war in Syria and to regime change in Egypt?
LEARNING OUTCOMES (comprehension, analysis, evaluation)
1.To be able to demonstrate familiarity with key ideas and concepts in the literature on Middle East
politics
2. To be able to integrate empirical evidence into empirically grounded arguments
3. To critique common misperceptions and misunderstandings of the Middle East, and to develop an
appreciation of non-Western societies
4. To use, evaluate, and synthesize information about the Middle East found in a range of media
5. To express informed opinions about the Middle East in academic, professional and social settings
6. To analyze past developments and new trends in Middle Eastern politics, economy, and society
Grading
1. Three paper assignments (15%, 15%, 20%; Due: Oct 3, Nov 14, Dec 5)
2. Two exams (15%-Oct 24; 25%-Dec 5)
3. Map test (5%; Oct 10)
4. Participation (5%)
Cellphones and laptops
Please be sure that your cellphones are silenced before entering the classroom. Text messaging during
class will not be tolerated. Use of laptops for any purpose other than note taking is not acceptable. This is
common sense and common courtesy. Persons using electronic devices inappropriately during class will be
asked to leave.
Other Ground Rules designed to create an environment without distraction
If you come to class late, be unobtrusive (sit quietly in the seat nearest the door)
DO NOT leave the classroom at any time before the class has ended.
Email etiquette: In any email you should include a salutation (e.g. Hello Professor Patton), and a closing
(e.g. Sincerely, Your Name). In the reference line, indicate which course you are in (e.g. PO144).
Other course expectations
Students must read closely and complete all readings before class, and participate actively in discussing
these in class with thoughtful and respectful comments. Most quizzes will be open note (not open book).
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Students should bring with them reading materials to every class.
Do not leave the classroom once the door is closed.
Attendance Policy
You are expected to attend every class. You are allowed to miss one class, after that your final grade will drop
by 1/3 of a grade with each succeeding absence. It is your responsibility to ask the professor what work was
missed and to complete it promptly. This policy excludes officially required release time for students
participating in University-sponsored events; the notification of such release time must come in advance of the
missed classes from the appropriate University source.
Academic Integrity
It is expected that any work a student submits is his/her own. Please review the University’s academic
honesty policy. Plagiarism is unacceptable and will be reported to university authorities for disciplinary
action. Students are expected to follow the University’s Honor Code. In the event of academic dishonesty,
the instructor will award a grade of zero for the project, paper or examination in question, and may record
an F for the course itself.
Required course materials
Course Reader (Available from Professor Patton)
CLASS SCHEDULE:
September 5: Distribution of course syllabus & Introduction-Islamophobia.
The mainstream media and US popular culture have manufactured and sustained negative stereotypes of
Arabs, Muslims, and Middle Easterners before and since 9/11. Historically, how (from where) have
Americans developed their attitudes and images of the Middle East?
Douglas Little, “Orientalism, American Style,” American Orientalism, Chapel Hill, NC: University of
North Carolina Press, 2004: 9-42.
What kinds of stereotypes of Middle Easterners and Muslims have developed in American culture? Why is
this a problem?
Leonard Rifas, “The Image of Arabs in U.S. comic books, Itchy Planet. Summer 1988:11-12.
Peter Gottschalk and Gabriel Greenberg, “Stereotyping Muslims and Establishing the American Norm,”
Islamophobia, NY: Rowman & Littlefield, 2008:61-88.
Moustafa Bayoumi, “Fear and Loathing of Islam,” The Nation, July 2/9, 2012.
Jack Shaheen, “The Making of the ‘Green Menace’,” The Nation, July 2/9, 2012.
Dvd: The Axis of Evil (clip) & Planet of the Arabs:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mi1ZNEjEarw&list=PL31015BB1CE00C4DA&index=
143
September 12: Reverse stereotypes (see class handout) & Youth
What aspirations and hopes for the future are shared by both your generation here in the US and your
counterparts in the Middle East? What is the most notable difference?
Ibrahim Saif & Joulan Abdul Khalek, “Youth in the Middle East and the Job Market,” International
Economic Bulletin, October 27, 2011.
Charles Kenny, “Youth in the Middle East: Nowhere to go but the street,” Guardian Development
Network, February 3, 2011.
“Facts about Middle Eastern Youth, Middle East Youth Initiative,
http://www.shababinclusion.org/section/about/facts/.
Ted Swedenberg, “Imagined Youths,” Middle East Report, 245, Winter 2007:4-11.
Film: Twenty Years Old in the Middle East, Dir. Amal Moghaizel, USA, 2003 (52 min).
September 19: Deconstructing Stereotypes: Sexuality and Gender Relations in the Middle East.
Increased economic and educational opportunities for women and the rise of nuclear family residential
patterns have eroded patriarchal family structures in the Middle East and present challenges to social taboos
relating to sexual behavior. Sexual behaviors that threaten the paramount values of family maintenance
and reproduction are publicly condemned, producing contradictions between normative morality and social
realities.
What are the social taboos regarding sexual behavior in the Middle East, and what are the risks of
violating these taboos for women as compared to men? How is it possible to view government policies as
promoting illicit sexual conduct?
Angel Foster, “Young Woman’s Sexuality in Tunisia,” in Donna Lee Bowen and Evelyn A. Early (eds),
Everyday Life in the Muslim Middle East, 2nd edition, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2002: 98110.
Abdessamad Dialmy, “Moroccan Youth, Sex and Islam,” Middle East Report, Spring 1998:16-17.
The Western stereotype of Muslim women is that veiling is an oppressive tradition. Why do Muslim
women veil? How can veiling be regarded as liberating?
Joseph Hanania, “The Veil: Meaning and Misconception,” Los Angeles Times, June 14, 1998.
Farzaneh Milani, “Coverings Uncovered,” Washington Post, October 22, 2006.
Stephen Prothero, “The Muslim Veil: Europe vs. the USA,” USA Today, August 2, 2010.
Film: excerpt On Boys, Girls, and the Veil, Dir. Yousry Nasrallah, Egypt, 1995 (72 min).
Most westerners assume that Muslim women are among the most oppressed in the world. Stereotypes of
Middle Eastern women portray them as either passive victims who just tolerate gender inequality or as
heroic rebels breaking rules and social norms; they do not show examples of women’s resistance or
women’s activities. How should we understand gender relations in the Middle East?
Mona Eltahawy, “Why Do They Hate Us?” Foreign Policy, April/May 2012,
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/23/why_do_they_hate_us?print=yes&hidecomments=yes&
page=full
Sondos Asem, Shadi Hamid, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, Hanin Ghaddar, Naheed Mustafa, Leila
Ahmed,“Debating the War on Women,” Foreign Policy, April 24, 2012
http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/04/24/debating_the_war_on_women
September 26: Religion in Everyday Life
Can YOU tell a Sunni from a Shiite?
Donna Lee Bowen & Evelyn A. Early, “Popular Expression of Religion, pp 241-245 in op. cit. Bowen and
Early.
Arang Keshavarzian, “The Muslim World Is Not Flat,” Middle East Report, 242, Spring 2007:5.
Jeff Stein, “Can you Tell a Sunni From a Shiite?” New York Times, October 17, 2005.
How is recitation of the Quran unlike hearing church bells on Sunday?
Kristina Nelson, “The Sound of the Divine in Daily Life,” pp. 257-261 in op. cit. Bowen and Early.
Why is zakat not regarded as a one-way street (that is to say, as an obligatory charity payment)?
Donna Lee Bowen, “Abu Illya and Zakat,” pp. 262-265 in op. cit. Bowen and Early.
What is the meaning of the term, Islamic Reformation, and what has been its impact on Muslim religious
beliefs and practices? What does it mean to say “Islam has been democratized”? What are some of the
implications of the growing use of the internet for religious discourse?
Dale F. Eickelman, “Inside the Islamic Reformation,” pp. 246-256 in op. cit. Bowen and Early.
Jon W. Anderson, “Internet Islam,” pp. 299-305 in op. cit. Bowen and Early.
October 3: State Formation in the Modern Middle East
How did World War I bring about the creation of the current state system in the Middle East?
David Fromkin, “How the modern Middle East map came to be drawn,” in Annual Editions, The Middle
East, Guilford, CT: Dushkin-McGraw Hill, 1998:164-168.
James Gelvin, “State-Building by Decree,” The Modern Middle East, NY: Oxford University Press,
2005:171-185.
James Gelvin, “State-Building by Revolution and Conquest,” The Modern Middle East, NY: Oxford
University Press, 2005: 186-196.
***************MAP TEST: October 10 *******************************
October 10: The Rise of Nationalisms and Arab Nationalism
Since WW1, what other identities have competed with Arab nationalism for people’s loyalties in the Middle
East?
Albert Hourani, A History of the Arab Peoples, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1991: 308-310
& 333-349.
James Gelvin, “The Introduction and Spread of Nationalism,” The Modern Middle East, NY: Oxford
University Press, 2005:197-205.
Compared to the colonial powers Britain and France, how was the United States viewed by people in the
region?
Rashid Khalidi, Resurrecting Empire, Boston: Beacon Press, 2004: ix-36.
What factors lay behind the emergence of the ideology of Arab nationalism? What factors explain the
decline in support for Arab nationalism?
Albert Hourani, “The Climax of Arabism,” A History of the Arab Peoples, Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 1991: 401-415.
Robert Gale Woolbert, “Pan-Arabism and the Palestinian Problem,” Foreign Affairs 16 (2), 1938:309-322.
October 17: Regime Survival Strategies & the Democracy Deficit
How does political liberalization differ from democratization? What role has the military played in
ensuring the durability of authoritarian regimes?
Gundrun Kramer, “Liberalization and Democracy in the Arab World,” Middle East Report, JanuaryFebruary 1992: 22-25, 35.
Roger Owen, State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East, NY: Routledge, 3rd
edition, 2004: 178-199.
Shana Marshall and Joshua Stacher, “Egypt’s Generals and Transnational Capital,” Middle East Report,
262, Spring 2012:12-18.
What does and does not explain the ‘democracy deficit’ in the Middle East? Why haven’t elections in the
Middle East made politics more representative? What reforms are needed for there to be genuine
democracy in the Arab world?
Gary Gambill, “Explaining the Arab Democracy Deficit: Part I,” Middle East Intelligence Bulletin, 5 (2),
February-March 2003.
Jillian Schwedler & Laryssa Chomiak, “And the Winner Is…,” Middle East Report, 238, Spring 2006: 1219.
Paul Silverstein, “Weighing Morocco’s New Constitution,” Middle East Report Online, July 5, 2011.
TBA
**************** EXAM 1 IN-CLASS OCTOBER 24****************************
October 24: Government-Opposition & State-Society relations
To what extent are genuine contestation and participation permitted in the Middle East? What explains the
weakness of civil society in the Middle East? How has the state managed “street politics” in the Arab
world? What are some of the “weapons of the weak” (i.e. ways that people resist oppression)?
Mona El Ghobasy, “Governments and Opposition,” in Michele Penner Angrist (ed), Politics & Society in
the Contemporary Middle East, Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner, 2nd ed, 2013.
Shelia Carapico, “Civil Society,” in Michele Penner Angrist (ed), Politics & Society in the Contemporary
Middle East, Boulder CO: Lynne Rienner, 2nd ed, 2013.
Asef Bayat, “The “Street” and the Politics of Dissent in the Arab World,” Middle East Report, 226, Spring
2003:10-17.
Amir Bagherpour and Roya Soleimani, “Oppression 2.0: Iranian Discontent in Cyberspace,” Jadiliyya, July
25, 2011.
Loubna Hassa Skalli, “Youth, Media, and the Art of Protest in North Africa,” Jadiliyya, June 27, 2011.
October 31: The Iranian Revolution and Three Wars
Why did Iran experience an Islamic revolution?
R. Stephen Humphreys, Between Memory and Desire, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2nd
edition, 2005:28-38.
Ervand Abrahamian, “Why the Islamic Republic has Survived,” Middle East Report, 250, Spring 2009:1016.
Why did Iraq attack Iran? Why did Iraq invade Kuwait? What are the legacies of the Iran-Iraq War?
Bishara A. Bahbah, “The Crisis in the Gulf: Why Iraq Invaded Kuwait,” in Phyllis Bennin and Michel
Moushabeck (eds), Beyond the Storm, NY: Olive Branch Press, 1991:50-54.
Joost Hiltermann, “Deep Traumas, Fresh Ambitions: Legacies of the Iran-Iraq War,” Middle East Report,
257, Winter 2010:6-15.
Nida Alahmad and Arang Keshavarzian, “A War on Multiple Fronts,” Middle East Report, 257, Winter
2010:17-28.
Why did the West attack Iraq in 1991? Why did the US invade Iraq in 2003? What are the legacies of the
Gulf War sanctions and the Iraq War?
Editors, “Iraq Ten Years Later,” Middle East Report, 266, Spring 2013: 1-3, 48.
Joost Hiltermann, “Iraq: What Remains,” Middle East Report, 266, Spring 2013: 4-9.
Bassam Yousif, “Aspiration and Reality in Iraq’s Post-Sanctions Economy,” Middle East Report, 266,
Spring 2013: 10-13.
November 7: Islamist Mobilization & Political Islam
Why aren’t Islamists the same everywhere? Is there ideological consensus among Islamists on what a
modern Islamic state should look like, that is to say, do Islamists offer a specific, unambiguous set of policy
alternatives and political solutions for governing (at the national level)?
Khaled Abou El Fadl, “Islam and the Theology of Power,” Middle East Report, 221, Winter 2001:28-33.
Mohammed Ayoob, “Islam’s Multiple Voices,” pp. 23-41 in Many Faces of Islam, Ann Arbor, MI:
University of Michigan Press, 2009.
Augustus Richard Norton, “Activism and Reform in Islam,” Current History, November 2002: 377-381.
Political Islamist movements—those that mobilize people for social action on the basis of Islamic
principles—have existed for a long time. The religious resurgence we have seen since the late 1960s is
characterized by an increasing political activism in the name of Islam by both governments and opposition
groups, and by the increasing prominence and politicization of Islamic idioms and symbols in Muslim
societies. Why did Islam become politicized? How have states responded to political Islam?
Sami Zubaida, “Islam and the Politics of Community and Citizenship,” Middle East Report, 221, Winter:
2001:20-27.
Amr Hamzawy and Nathan J Brown, “A Boon or a Bane for Democracy?” Journal of Democracy, 19 (3),
July 2008: 49-54.
November 14: The Political Economy of Development
To what extent are internal vs. external factors responsible for development failures in the region? Why
has economic liberalization not turned Middle Eastern economies around?
James Gelvin, “Defensive Developmentalism,” The Modern Middle East, NY: Oxford University Press,
2005: 73-87.
James Gelvin, “Imperialism,” The Modern Middle East, NY: Oxford University Press, 2005:88-99.
James Gelvin, “The Middle East in the Age of Globalization,” The Modern Middle East, NY: Oxford
University Press, 2005: 300-306.
Toby Dodge, “Bringing the bourgeoisie back in,” Toby Dodge and Richard Higgott, (eds.), Globalization
and the Middle East. London: Royal Institute of International Affairs, 2002: 169-187.
The Political Economy of Oil.
Has oil been a blessing or a curse to Middle Eastern states and their peoples?
Giacomo Luciani, “Oil and Political Economy in the International Relations of the Middle East,” in Louise
Fawcett, International Relations of the Middle East, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005:81-103.
Ian Black, “Golden oil of Iraqi Kurdistan raises tensions with Baghdad,” The Guardian, June 10, 2013.
Toby C. Jones, “Embracing Crisis in the Gulf,” Middle East Report, 264, Fall 2012: 26-29.
November 21: The Palestine-Israel conflict
What is at the heart of the dispute between Israelis and Palestinians?
Middle East Report, “Primer on Palestine, Israel and the Arab-Israeli Conflict,”
http://www.merip.org/palestine-israel_primer/toc-pal-isr-primer.html
Middle East Report, “Primer on the Uprising in Palestine,”
http://www.merip.org/Palestine_Primer/primer_intro.html
The Palestinian-Israeli peace process
What are the outstanding issues to resolve in a peace agreement?
Joel Beinin, “The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Arab Awakening,” Middle East Report Online,
August 1, 2011.
Jeff Halper, “Dismantling the Matrix of Control,” Middle East Report Online, September 11, 2010.
November 27- December 1: Thanksgiving Break
December 5: The Arab Uprisings.
What factors precipitated the military coup in Egypt?
Joshua Stacher, “Establishment Morsi,” Middle East Report 265, Winter 2012: 10-11.
The Editors, “Egypt in Year Three,” Middle East Report Online, July 10, 2013.
TBA
What precipitated the Syrian uprising?
Hisham Melhem, “Syria Between Two Transitions,” Middle East Report, 203, Spring 1997: 2-7.
Peter Harling and Sarah Birke, “The Syrian Heartbreak,” Middle East Report Online, April 16, 2013.
TBA
EXAM 2-IN CLASS