[en] Within the broader spectrum of Arab Islamist political parties, membership has taken on a deep meaning in terms of identity politics. By taking into account not only the diversity of Islamist parties but also the different political contexts they operate in and by opting for a broad conceptualisation of membership, this article aims to offer an overview of key Islamist parties' strategies towards society, their appeal and their positioning in the domestic political game in three highly-different polities: the newly democratised Tunisia, Morocco's partly liberalised autocracy and Israel's consolidated but Jewish-majoritarian democracy. It will do so by disentangling the dimension of membership within the Justice and Development (Morocco), Ennahda (Tunisia) and Ra'am (Israel) parties, with an eye to pointing out the existing dialectic between the political parties as such and the religious movement they stem from. Beyond their differences, striking commonalities across these three case studies stand out, such as a pragmatic attitude accommodated to high Islamist moral standards, a strategy of soft penetration and active mobilisation of society, a core conservative constituency interested in upward mobility and a yearning for social change.
Disciplines :
Sociology & social sciences
Author, co-author :
Cimini, Giulia; The Department of Political and Social Sciences, The University of Bologna, Italy
DE MARTINO, Claudia ; University of Luxembourg > Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C2DH) > Contemporary History of Luxembourg
External co-authors :
yes
Language :
English
Title :
Disentangling membership of Islamist parties in a post-ideological political arena: The PJD, Ennahda and Ra'am compared
Publication date :
2021
Journal title :
Orient - Deutsche Zeitschrift für Politik und Wirtschaft des Orients
Abu Nasra, Muhammed, Meir Elran and Erav Yashiv, "The Five-Year Economic Plan for Israel's Arab Sector: A Progress Report," Israel National Security Studies Insight 845, August 9, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/42rhhbs5.
Ayari, Michael and Thierry Bresillon, "Le Retour" Du Parti Ennahda Sur La Scene Politique: De La Normalisation Democratique Au Compromis Autoritaire," in Tunisie: Une Democratisation Au-Dessus De Tout Soupgcon, edited by Amin Altai and Vincent Geisser (Tunis: Nirvana Editions, 2019), 89-104.
Cimini, Giulia, "Learning mechanisms within an Islamist party: Tunisia's Ennahda Movement between domestic and regional balances," Contemporary Politics (2021), online version first.
Daily Sabah, "Israel's top court overturns ban on Arab party, disqualifies far-rightist," March 17, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5uu936f.
Fahmy, Khaled, "The Arabs' Groundhog Day," interviewed by Sonja Zekri, Suddeutsche Zeitung, June 23, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/k84xxkp4.
Ghanem, As'ad and Muhannad Mustafa, "The Palestinians in Israel and the 2006 Knesset Elections: Political and Ideological Implications of Elections Boycott," Holy Land Studies 6 (1:2007), 51-73.
Goeury, David, "La carte politique au Maroc ne va pas trap changer en 2021," interviewed by Mehdi Michbal, Medias24, February 3, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/ytw6h4ka.
Gupta, Devashree, "Selective Engagement and Its Consequences for Social Movement Organizations: Lessons from British Policy in Northern Ireland," Comparative Politics 39 (3:2007), 331-351.
Ha'aretz, "Ultra-Orthodox and Arab Parties Struck Illegal Deal at Polling Stations, Haaretz Investigation Finds", August, 14, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/b2sws3br.
Haddad, Yvonne, "Islamists and the 'Problem of Israel': The 1967 Awakening," Middle East Journal 46 (2:1992), 266-285.
Ignazi, Piero, Party and Democracy: The Uneven Road to Party Legitimacy (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017).
Koehler, Kevin and Jana Warkotsch, "Tunisia Between Democratization and Institutionalizing Uncertainty," in Elections and Democratization in the Middle East, edited by Mahmoud Hamad and Khalil Al-Anani (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014), 9-34.
Merone, Fabio, "Enduring Class Struggle in Tunisia: The Fight for Identity beyond Political Islam," British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 42 (1:2015), 74-87.
Pellicer, Miquel and Eva Wegner, "Socio-Economic Voter Profile and Motives for Islamist Support in Morocco," Party Politics 20 (1:2014), 116-133.
PJD, "Statute of the Party of Justice and Development," Rabat, 2012, https://tinyurl.com/vu5mrpc7 (Arabic).
Rosmer, Tilde, "Resisting 'Israelization': The Islamic Movement in Israel and the Realization of Islamization, Palestinization and Arabization," Journal of Islamic Studies 23 (3:2012), 325-358.
Rubin, Lawrence, "Islamic Political Activism in Israel," The Saban Centre for Middle East Policy at Brookings, April 2014, https://tinyurl.com/w3ha6r8k.
Rudnitzky, Arik, "The 2018 Municipal Elections in Arab Localities: an Overview," Bayan, December 10, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/6xh6rn5r.
Rudnitzky, Arik, "Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Surveys," March 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yr8tsvaz.
Spiegel, Avi, "Succeeding by Surviving: Examining the Durability of Political Islam in Morocco," Brookings Institution, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/4m7m5ja7.
Srivastava, Mehul, "Israel's Islamists target gains as Netanyahu courts Arab vote," The Financial Times, February 10, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/ywwyv87p.
Syrioti, Daniel, "Arab party Ra'am will split from joint list, political sources predict," Israel Hayom, January 27, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/4kxdxwwv.
Tal, Nachman, "The Islamic Movement in Israel," Strategic Assessment - A Multidisciplinary Journal on National Security 2 (4:2000), 10-15.
Tome-Alonso, Beatriz, "El Partido de la Justicia y el Desarrollo (PJD) en la Arena Local: Perfil Sociodemografico. La diferenciacion Como Argumento Politico," Revista de estudios internacionales mediterra\neos 20 (July 2016), 145-170.
van Hamme, Gilles, Alia Gana and Maher Ben Rebbah, "Social and Socio-Territorial Electoral Base of Political Parties in Post-Revolutionary Tunisia," The Journal of North African Studies 19 (5:2014), 751-769.
Wermenbol, Grace, "The Ongoing Divide: Palestinian Participation in Israeli Elections," Middle East Institute, September 16, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/zkexb2b2.
Zamir, Sharaf, Avital Fridman and Assaf Shapira, "Parliamentary Work Index for Israel's Political Parties," The Israel Democracy Institute, August 15, 2018, https://en.idi.org.il/articles/24407.
