The Jarring Road to Democratic Inclusion: A Comparative Assessment of StateSociety Engagements in Israel and Turkey

(Hardback)

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This edited volume brings together chapters that offer theoretically pertinent comparisons between various dimensions of Israeli and Turkish politics. Each chapter covers a different aspect of statesociety interactions in both countries from a comparative perspective, including the public role of religion, political culture, women rights movements, religious education, religious movements, marriage regulation, labor market inclusion, and ethnic minorities. Israel and Turkey share significant similarities, such as state formation under nationalist ideologies, familiarity with democratic governance since the 1940s, strong affiliation with the West, recent resurgence of religious parties, ongoing conflict with ethno-national minority groups that challenge the dominant national project, contemporary popular protests against the incumbent regime, and recent serious erosion of democratic rights. At the same time they differ on major variables, such as size, majority religion, geopolitical location, level of economic development, policy towards ethnic minorities, and institutional arrangements to managing the statereligion relations. The presence of these differences in face of common backgrounds facilitates analytically grounded comparisons in a host of dimensions. Therefore, employing a case-oriented comparative method, this book provides historically interpretative and causally analytic accounts on the politics of both societies. The contributions reveal the dynamic and complexrather than one-dimensional and linearnature of political processes in both settings. This empirically rich and theoretically sophisticated volume should contribute to a better understanding of these two important states, and, no less important, stimulate new directions for comparative research, especially on Middle East regimes, social movements, and democratization.

Reviews

This is a unique collection of essays on political comparative analysis of Israel and Turkey, both represent non-western and non-liberal models of democracy. The editors have brought together interdisciplinary and transatlantic group of experts focusing on the timely discussions of democratic inclusion, conflicts of political identity, and critical social movements. The contributions reveal the contemporary democratic shortcomings and challenges facing both countries. It is a must read for scholars who are interested in comparative politics and state-society relations in the Middle East. -- Gke Yurdakul, Humboldt-Universitt zu Berlin
Comparisons of Turkey and Israel have been far too rare within the scholarly literature.Both nationalisms are ostensibly secular, but defined in large part by religious affiliation.Both states were formed in large part by the dispossession of rival indigenous populations.And, as this rich volume makes clear, both Israel and Turkey have undergone profound transformations in the recent past. Scholarly, well-researched, and innovative, this collection addresses the surprising and revolutionary changes underway in these two strategically important regional outliers. -- Howard Eissenstat, St. Lawrence University

Author Bio

Aviad Rubin is associate professor in the School of Political Science at the University of Haifa. Yusuf Sarfati is associate professor of politics and government at Illinois State University.