American University in Cairo
Middle East Politics (POLS 5235)
Fall 2014 Monday, 5:00-7:25 pm
Dr. Dina Shehata
dshehata@aucegypt.edu
Course Description
This course deals with fundamental issues in Middle East Politics. Following a brief
introductory part that looks at approaches in comparative politics and their application in the
MENA (Part I), we first examine the history of state formation in the region (Part II) and then
turn to a number of current topics (Part III), including the political economy of the Middle East,
the role of political institutions, political ideologies, specific (groups of) political actors, and
revolution. The course concludes by discussing the extent to which the uprisings of the Arab
Spring represent a fundamental break in the history of the region and in the way in which we
study it.
Assignments
You will prepare short presentations on the topic of a specific session that you will deliver in
class (not longer the 20 minutes). Presentations should go significantly beyond the required
reading by drawing on evidence from (at least) two different countries of the MENA, or
alternatively the same country at two different periods in time (e.g. the political economies of
Libya and Jordan, or political institutions before and after the Arab Spring). Good presentations
advance an argument on the topic in question for which they draw on comparative evidence.
Avoid using cases as mere illustrations, but exploit relevant similarities and differences.
Throughout the course you will develop a seminar paper. Please take note of the following
deadlines:
• By October 1st, submit a summary of a proposed research paper, including a research question
and case selection (not more than one page).
• By November 1st, submit a bibliography of at least 15 titles that are relevant to your paper.
Include a sentence or two explaining why each title is important.
By December 1st, submit your final paper first to turnitin and then by email to me. All papers
must reach my inbox before 12:00 pm, midnight, on December 9th, along with the turnitin
report sheets.
Readings
Specific readings will be assigned for each session, most of which will be made available in a
joint Dropbox folder. Students can purchase the following books through the AUC bookstore:
• Lust, Ellen (ed.), The Middle East, 13th edition, (2014).
• Owen, Roger, State, Power and Politics in the Making of the Modern Middle East, 3rd edition,
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(2006)
• Schwedler, Jillian (ed.), Understanding the Contemporary Middle East, 4th edition, (2013).
Course policy
• Cheating and plagiarism: Any information, arguments, or data used by students in their work
should be properly cited and credited. Should you fail to give proper credits wherever
appropriate or turn in the same paper for two different courses, I reserve the right to fail you for
the course and to turn your name over to the University Administration for disciplinary
measures. Your seminar papers must be processed through www.turnitin.com. Please be aware
that I will submit papers to additional originality checks even though I ask you to submit a
turnitin report sheet along with your paper.
• Attendance policy: The university-wide attendance policy will be applied in this course. Thus,
a student who misses more than the equivalent of three weeks of class meetings during a
semester for any reason may be assigned a reduced grade for the course–including the grade of
“F”–solely on the basis of inadequate attendance, regardless of excuse. Students who miss
fewer than three weeks of class sessions may not be penalized on the grounds of attendance
alone. Students are personally responsible for making up any academic tasks and assignments
missed due to their absence.
• Cellular phones: Please turn off all cellular phones and any other potentially disruptive
equipment. Should you need to make or to receive a phone call, please wait until the short break
to do so.
• Academic freedom and intellectual interaction: You are free to offer the class any
disagreement you may have with the readings or lecture. You will not be penalized for
disagreeing with other students or the instructor, but your perspective must be based on
evidence from the course, other readings and/or development reality. Freedom of speech and
ideas is a basic principle of academic life. Please listen carefully to your class- mates and
respect other viewpoints. Every student will have a chance to express her/his opinion as long as
it is voiced in a respectful manner. Intellectual interaction and a healthy academic environment
necessitate that we address and refer to each other with utmost politeness, cordiality, and an
appropriate tone of speech. In addition, varied points of view must be expressed in a manner
that is sensitive to differences in ability, class, ethnicity, lifestyle, race, religion, or sex, and
should not be expressed so as to be perceived as a personal attack. Thus, engaging in derogatory
statements, hate speech, interruptions, heckling, or in belittling ideas with which one disagrees
will not be tolerated.
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Detailed Course Outline
Area Studies and Comparative Politics: Competing or Complementary?
(15 September 2014)
Required Readings:
• Bates, Robert H, 1997. “Area Studies and the Discipline: A Useful Controversy?” PS:
Political Science and Politics 30(2), 166-169, (on Black- board).
• Lijphart, Arend, 1971. “Comparative Politics and the Comparative Method,” American
Political Science Review 65(3), 682-693, (on Blackboard).
• Schmitter, Philippe C., 2008. “The Design of Social and Political Re- search,” in: Donatella
Della Porta and Michael Keating, Approaches and Methodologies in the Social Sciences,
(Cambridge UP), Chapter 14, (on Blackboard).
Part I: The Emergence of the Modern Middle East
Independent Arab States: The End of Ottoman and Colonial Rule (22
September 2014)
Questions: What are the legacies of Ottoman rule in the Middle East? What different forms of
colonial domination can be distinguished? How did different Middle Eastern states gain
independence and why does it matter?
Required Readings:
• Owen, Chapter 1.
• Lust, Chapter 1.
• Schwedler, Chapter 3.
Making a State: Forms of Political and Economic Development (29
September 2014)
Questions: What are the main features of state building in the MENA? Which different
strategies can be distinguished? What long-term effects did such dif- ferent strategies have and
how?
Required Readings:
• Hinnebusch, Raymond 2010. “Toward a Historical Sociology of State For- mation in the
Middle East,” Middle East Critique 19(3), 201-216, (on Blackboard).
• Owen, Chapters 2 and 3.
• Waldner, David 1999. State Building and Late Development, Chapters 1 and 2, (on
Blackboard).
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War and Peace: The Role of Regional and International Politics (13
October 2014)
Questions: What different phases can be distinguished with respect to the Mid- dle East as an
international subsystem? Which are the major turning-points in the region’s international
relations?
Required Readings:
• Lust, Chapters 8 and 9.
• Schwedler, Chapters 5 and 6.
Part II: Topics
Social Actors: Networks, Classes and Movements (20 October 2014)
Questions: What is the role of tribes, clans, extended families, shillas, ethnic groups, sects, and
social classes? How do these social groups relate to each other? Is there anything specifically
‘Middle Eastern’ or ‘Arab’ about social stratification in the region?
Required Readings:
• Bellin, Eva 2000, “Contingent Democrats: Industrialists, Labor and De- mocratization in LateDeveloping Countries,” World Politics 52, 175-205 (on Blackboard).
• Lust, Chapter 2.
• Schwedler, Chapter 10.
Political Economy: Oil, Statism, and Liberalization (27 October 2014)
Questions: Are there distinctive features of Middle Eastern political economies? Characterize
the main aims and outcomes of economic liberalization.
Required Readings:
• Lust, Chapter 4.
• Owen, Chapter 7.
• Schwedler, Chapter 7-9.
Institutions: Parties, Elections, and Parliaments (3 November 2014)
Questions: What was the role of parties, elections, and parliaments under au- thoritarianism
before the Arab Spring? Did these roles change? What is the potential of such institutions to
influence transition projects? How do different Arab states differ from each other on this
dimension?
Required Readings:
• Gandhi, Jennifer and Ellen Lust-Okar, 2009. “Elections Under Author- itarianism,” Annual
Review of Political Science 12, 403-422, (on Black- board).
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• Lust, Chapter 3.
• Masoud, Tarek, 2013. Arabs Want Redistribution, So Why Don’t They Vote Left? Theory and
Evidence from Egypt, Harvard University, Faculty Research Working Papers, (on Blackboard).
• Owen, Chapter 8.
Participation: Civil Society, Public Opinion, and Political Activism (10
November 2014)
Questions: What is the problem of civil society in the Middle East according to authors such as
Bellin, Abdelrahman, and Langohr?
Required Readings:
• Abdelrahman, Maha 2002.The Politics of ‘un-civil’ Society in Egypt, Re- view of African
Political Economy 29(91), 21-36, (on Blackboard).
• Bellin, Eva, 1994. “Civil Society: Effective Tool of Analysis for Mid- dle East Politics?,’ PS:
Political Science and Politics 27(3), 509-510, (on Blackboard).
• Langohr, Vickie 2004. Too Much Civil Society, Too Little Politics: Egypt and Liberalizing
Arab Regimes, Comparative Politics 36(2), 181-204, (on Blackboard).
• Lust, Chapter 6.
Ideologies and Political Attitudes: Nationalism, Support for Democracy,
and Political Islam (17 November 2014)
Questions: What are the empirical effects of religiosity on political attitudes and participation?
Do people in the Middle East support democracy?
Required Readings:
• Hoffman, Michael and Amaney Jamal, 2012. “The Youth and the Arab Spring: Cohort
Differences and Similarities,” Middle East Law and Gov- ernance 4, 168-188, (on Blackboard).
• Tessler, Mark 2002. “Islam and Democracy in the Middle East: The Impact of Religious
Orientations on Attitudes toward Democracy in Four Arab Countries,” Comparative Politics
34(3), 337-354, (on Blackboard).
• Tessler, Mark, Amaney Jamal, and Michael Robbins, 2012. “New Find- ings on Arabs and
Democracy,” Journal of Democracy 23(4), 89-103, (on Blackboard).
The Military: The Lasting Role of Arab Officers (24 November 2014)
Questions: What was the historical role of the military in the region? How did military behavior
contribute to shaping the Arab Spring? What is specific about Arab militaries (if anything)?
Required Readings:
• Albrecht, Holger and Dina Bishara, 2011. “Back on Horseback: The Mil- itary and Political
Transformation in Egypt,” Middle East Law and Gov- ernance 3, 13-23, (on Blackboard).
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• Bellin, Eva, 2012. “Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East,”
Comparative Politics 44(2), 127-149, (on Blackboard).
• Brooks, Risa, 1998. Political-Military Relations and the Stability of Arab Regimes, (Oxford:
Oxford University Press), ‘Introduction,’ ‘The Stability of Arab Regimes,’ and ‘Maintaining
Power,’ (on Blackboard).
Revolution: Change and Upheaval in Arab Politics (1 December 2014)
Questions: What is a revolution? Does the Arab Spring fulfill this definition? Which approaches
in the study of revolutions might be particularly helpful in studying the Arab Spring?
Required Readings:
• Goldstone, Jack A., 2001. “Toward a Fourth Generation of Revolutionary Theory,” Annual
Review of Political Science 4, 139-187, (on Blackboard).
• Goodwin, Jeff, 1994. “Toward a New Sociology of Revolutions,” Theory and Society 23(6),
731-766, (on Blackboard).
• Kuran, Timur, 1989. “Sparks and Prairie Fires: A Theory of Unantici- pated Political
Revolution,” Public Choice 61(1), 41-74, (on Blackboard)
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