Seminar 29 April, 2013

Institutional Roots of Authoritarian Rule in the Middle East:  Political Legacies of the Waqf

Abstract.
The waqf is the closest thing under Islamic law to an autonomous private organization. Hence, in the pre-modern Middle East it served as a key determinant of civil society, political participation, and trust in institutions, among other indicators and components of democratization. This paper argues that for a millennium the waqf delayed and limited democratization in the region through several mutually supportive mechanisms. Its activities were more or less set by its founder, which limited its capacity to reallocate resources to meet political challenges. It was designed to provide a service on its own, which blocked its participation in lasting political coalitions. Its beneficiaries had no say in selecting the officers, whom they could not evaluate. Circumventing waqf rules required the permission of a court, which galvanized corruption. Finally, the process of appointing successive officials was not merit-based; it promoted and legitimized nepotism. The upshot is that, for all the resources it controlled, the waqf contributed minimally to building civil society. As a core element of Islam’s classical institutional complex, it helped to perpetuate authoritarian rule by keeping the state unmonitored and largely unrestrained.