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Class, Status, and Party: The Changing Face of Political Islam in Turkey and Egypt
Sebnem Gumuscu Comparative Political Studies 2010 43: 835 originally published online 26 February 2010 DOI: 10.1177/0010414010361341 The online version of this article can be found at: http://cps.sagepub.com/content/43/7/835

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Class, Status, and Party: The Changing Face of Political Islam in Turkey and Egypt
Sebnem Gumuscu1

Comparative Political Studies 43(7) 835 861 The Author(s) 2010 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/0010414010361341 http://cps.sagepub.com

Abstract This article argues that socioeconomic changes within Islamist constituencies are critical parts of understanding of how moderate Islamists emerge and succeed. The diverging paths of economic reform in Turkey and Egypt have generated different effects on the Islamist constituencies in these two countries. Economic liberalization has played both a constitutive and a causal role in transformation of political Islam in Turkey by facilitating the growth of a strong devout bourgeoisie with vested interests in liberalism and democracy. With the growing support of this rising devout bourgeoisie, the moderate Islamists managed to transform Islamism into a democratic conservative party. In Egypt, in contrast, the way the state implemented economic reform prevented the formation of as strong and independent a devout bourgeoisie that could be assertive in political Islam. Instead, the lower-middle-class professionals, losers of reform, populated the Islamist constituency and entrenched Islamism in ideological positions rather than pragmatism. This ultimately led to the marginalization of the moderates in Egypt. Keywords Islamist moderation, devout bourgeoisie, economic reform, Justice and Development Party, Muslim Brotherhood
1

University of Virginia, Charlottesville,VA

Corresponding Author: Sebnem Gumuscu, University of Virginia, Woodrow Wilson Department of Politics, P.O. Box 400787, Charlottesville,VA 22904-4787 Email:sg6d@virginia.edu

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Can Islamic political parties undergo fundamental change? Under what conditions do they go beyond strategic participation in legal politics and internalize the principles of democracy? During the 1990s in Turkey and Egypt, groups within political Islamic movements shifted to the center of the political spectrum where they assumed a moderate role and adhered to democratic principles.1 Although moderates within each movement became increasingly visible in both countries, only in Turkey did they successfully transform the Islamist party into a centrist conservative party, Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP, Justice and Development Party). In Egypt moderates failed to transform the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), and the party they established, Wasat (Center), became a marginalized actor of Islamic activism in Egypt.2 Why did the Turkish Islamists succeed in marginalizing radicals and moderating political Islam whereas their Egyptian counterparts failed and got marginalized? Existing explanations based on inclusion, political learning, and repression cannot sufficiently address the complexity of moderation. I contend that the socioeconomic changes are important factors that facilitate a better understanding of belated moderation in Turkey and partial moderation in Egypt. In that respect, the ways in which economic liberalization affected the Islamist constituency in Turkey and Egypt complement the existing explanations of the evolution of Islamism in these countries. This article first assesses the extant explanations of moderation in the literature. The following section introduces the main argument in comparative perspective. In the third section, the article lays down the details of Turkish economic liberalization, how it affects the political Islamic constituency, and the consequences for Islamism. In the final section, the article analyzes the partial economic liberalization in Egypt, its effects on business classes and professionals, and the implications for political Islamic movements.

Alternative Explanations of Islamist Moderation


Some scholars contend that institutional change can bring about substantive changes in Islamic parties (Robinson, 1997; Schwedler, 2006). Labeled as the inclusion-moderation hypothesis, this approach suggests that during periods of political liberalization radical political parties face a trade-off between radicalism and inclusion, which requires them to moderate if they are to be included in the legal political system (Huntington, 1991). Accordingly, when Islamists face a similar trade-off, they decide to partake in legal politics and accept the rules of democratic politics, which signifies a tactical change. The inclusion-moderation hypothesis anticipates that after this initial

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tactical adjustment an eventual ideological change will occur. This expectation, however, is theoretically underspecified and empirically unfounded for the causal links between inclusion and ideological moderation are unclear, and empirical studies reveal that rarely does inclusion induce ideological moderation (Schwedler, 2006). Other scholars highlight the importance of political learning. The political learning thesis emphasizes that political experience at the individual level changes perceptions of democracy in a way that makes democratic participation more attractive (Bermeo, 1992; Wickham, 2004). Because political learning is confined to the individual level, the thesis is not well suited to addressing how individual experiences diffuse and shape group decisions. That is, it cannot explain how change at the individual level translates into broader changes at the party level. Neither the inclusion-moderation thesis nor the political learning thesis can solve the puzzle that Turkey and Egypt pose. Turkish Islamic parties opted for inclusion in the democratic politics in 1970, but they showed no sign of ideological moderation until late 1990s. Likewise, in Egypt the MB participated in parliamentary elections and established electoral alliances with rivals, yet this experience has not induced an overall moderation. Therefore, inclusion is not a good predictor of the timing of ideological moderation, suggesting that there might be other factors beside inclusion that induce moderation. The political learning thesis, on the other hand, might be a compelling argument for moderation of some Muslim Brothers, but it cannot explain why they failed to appeal to a greater audience within the ranks of the MB. Likewise, the political learning thesis cannot fully explicate the reasons why groups within Turkish political Islam emerged with diverging levels of moderation despite the fact that they had similar political experiences. Finally, even if it was political learning that induced moderation in Turkey, the mechanisms of diffusion of such individualbased political experience are unclear. Alternatively, one could consider the history of militant Islamism in Egypt and lack thereof in Turkey as a factor explaining the diverging outcomes in these two cases. Although militant Islamists performed violent acts in 1970s and 1990s, the MB denounced violent means of achieving an Islamic state and society as early as the late 1960s when Supreme Guide Hudaybi (1977) penned Preachers, not Judges in response to Qutbian radicalism. That is, the MB like the Turkish Islamist parties preferred nonviolent means and working through the system to Islamize the society and the state. Moreover, militant Islamism never appealed to as wide a following as the MB, which remained the dominant actor in Egyptian political Islam. Finally, militant Islamist groups were increasingly marginalized following the states heavy

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crackdown in the mid-1990s, and recently some militant groups called for revision of violent means employed in attaining political goals. Despite the similarity in strategies, Turkish Islamist parties enjoyed legal status, whereas the MB remained an illegal organization since 1950s. The MBs illegality, however, did not prevent them from running in parliamentary elections in alliance with other parties in the 1980s or as independents since the 1990s and overtaking the professional associations in the early 1990s when the state accommodated the brotherhood. Illegality, however, has been a handicap for the MB whenever the state resorted to it as an excuse for intermittent repression. Yet again, legal status of Turkish Islamist parties has been no guarantee against the wrath of the secular state establishment. This has been manifest in party closure or political bans on its leaders, particularly when Islamists make their goals of Islamization of state and society more explicit.3 In other words, the relationship between Islamists and the state in both Turkey and Egypt is one of antagonism, and the difference in legal status does not generate as wide a gap to adequately explain the different developments in political Islam. The common trend of state repression observed in both cases cannot sufficiently address the differing scales of moderation in these countries either. If it was states repression that induced moderation in Turkey, why has it not generated moderation in Egypt where Islamists suffered in greater scale and frequency compared to their Turkish counterparts? Again, why did it take four different parties in three decades, all closed down by the Constitutional Court, for Turkish Islamists to realize that the state would not allow them to pursue Islamism? Therefore, state repression is insufficient in explaining the timing of moderation. Likewise, it fails to explain why groups within political Islam adopt differing levels of moderation. In the February 28th process, the secular Turkish state establishment cracked down on Islamists who in turn adopted differing degrees of moderation that culminated in two different political parties, the AKP and Saadet Partisi (SP, Felicity Party) emerging out of the Milli Gorus (MG, National Outlook) movement. To put it differently, repression might induce strategic change and introduce schisms within Islamist movements, but it is insufficient to explain how exactly strategic change turns into ideological moderation. A fuller explanation of moderation requires specification of conditions under which moderates overcome the resistance of the hardliners and replace the authoritarian perception of Islam with that of liberal understanding. Building on Bayats (2007) contention that change occurs when liberal and democratic understanding of Islam is voiced by a powerful group within the broader Islamist coalition, this article argues that developments that distribute

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power among parts of the Islamist constituency are critical in detecting these conditions. Economic liberalization has been one such development that has not only distributed power among components of Islamist coalition but also generated an elective affinity between the most powerful group and a liberal perception of Islam through novel articulations of Islam and its relations with economy, politics, and society.

Economic Liberalization and Its Effects on Class, Status, and Party


Political Islam is a movement that binds individuals at very different levels of the social strata in a cross-class alliance by bringing forth the Islamic identity and appealing to religious sentiments (Onis, 1997, p. 748). This does not necessarily imply that class interests are absent in these alliances (Tugal, 2002). In fact, different social classes join together for different goals and ideals under the umbrella of Islamist politics (Gulalp, 2001). Economic liberalization had diverging economic and political consequences for the constituencies of political Islam in Turkey and Egypt. Although economic reforms reduced state employment, shrank budgets, and privatized social services to the detriment of the middle- and lower-class professionals and wage labor in both countries, implementation of an export-oriented economic program in Turkey facilitated the emergence of a strong devout bourgeoisie. Egypts liberalization, in contrast, was limited to the financial and commercial sectors, and its beneficiaries were a narrow range of carefully selected clients who remained dependent on the state. In Turkey, economic liberalization provided opportunities to provincial entrepreneurs that were previously excluded from the benefits of the import substitution regime. As this provincial bourgeoisie began to prosper, it became a force for pragmatism. Although their power grew within the Islamist coalition with their increasing financial and organizational strength, the power of the losers of economic reformthe professional and lower classesdeclined (Tugal, 2002). State retreat from economic activities and social services in favor of the private sector further contributed to the strength of the devout bourgeoisie that heavily invested in education, health, and media where the losers within the Islamist constituency turned for employment, social services, and schooling (Yavuz, 2003a). As the provincial entrepreneurs enjoyed economic growth and new lifestyles, they fused their religious piety with capitalist activity to build a new class identity around relations of production, consumption, and religious devotion.4 The devout bourgeoisie came to embody a new Weberian status

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group with a distinct lifestyle and monopolized practices (Gerth & Mills, 1946) manifested in new customs of veiling, fasting, and Islamic vacationing. The changes in economic class and social status led to changes in political preferences of the devout bourgeoisie, creating an elective affinity between the new bourgeois class and pragmatic politics that moderates advocate, for ideological politics of Islamism, which the provincial entrepreneurs supported throughout the 1970s, became increasingly costly over 1990s when the devout bourgeoisie started to make extensive long- and short-term investments. The new devout bourgeoisie hence emerged as a natural ally for moderate Islamists in creating a new political identity that fuses religiosity and rights, faith and freedom, and marries Islam with democracy and modernity (Bayat, 2007, p. 11). Defense of this new economic and political identity was possible through pragmatism and moderation in political tone and consolidation of liberal economy and democracy, which would strengthen the devout bourgeoisie vis--vis the agents of the secular state led by the military. Increasing predominance of the new devout bourgeoisie within the Islamist constituency strengthened the moderate forces within Turkish Islamism at the expense of the hard-liners.5 In Egypt, on the other hand, economic liberalization favored financial and commercial sectors over manufacturing. It benefited big businesses more than small and medium enterprises (SMEs), and it did not promote the integration of Islamic business with markets. And the states continuing presence in the economy contributed to the heavy dependence of big business, secular and devout alike, on the state for the continuing flow of profits. This led to a weak presence of the devout bourgeoisie in politics. Instead, new middle classes formed the main pillar of Islamist constituency. Economic liberalization in Egypt curtailed the states social welfare role and privatized welfare services. Private voluntary associations and charity organizations filled the gap left by the retreat of the state. Established by and serving the new middle classes, these organizations entrenched the middle classs commitment to political Islam, and they enhanced its power relative to other social groups. This Islamic parallel sector has come to represent an alternative vision of an Islamic state that offers an alternative to sacrifices of economic liberalization. Though this ideological project was attractive to the new middle classes, it was devoid of the pragmatism that was essential to the incorporation of bourgeoisie in Turkeys more moderate political Islam.

Turkish Economic Liberalization and Emergence of Devout Bourgeoisie


The Turkish government abandoned an import substitution industrialization model and switched to economic liberalism in January 1980 as a response to

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the current account imbalance and debt crises, which emerged as a result of internal inability to adjust to the oil shocks of the 1970s (Rodrik, 1999). Turkish economic reform sought macroeconomic stabilization, outward orientation through export promotion, and trade liberalization. The government deregulated key relative prices such as the real exchange rate, real wages, and interest rates. As part of a broader structural reform, the government aimed at expansion of export-oriented private sector. To initiate an export drive, the government substantially devalued Turkish lira by 100% between 1980 and 1988. Tax rebates, credit subsidies, and duty-free imports for exportables production accompanied devaluation of the currency (Celasun & Rodrik, 1989, p. 668). Finally, the income policy reduced the labor cost for manufacturers by 1.6% annually from 1980 to 1988 (Odekon, 1992, p. 159). These policies bore fruit when the total value of exports reached $13 billion in 1990 from a mere $2.3 billion in 1979.6 The share of the manufactured goods in total exports reached 78% in 1991, whereas the exports market diversified as Turkish goods penetrated the new markets in the Middle East (Saracoglu, 1994, p. 71). As the Turkish economy underwent a significant transformation, SMEs in Anatolia gradually integrated with international markets in the 1990s through buyer-driven commodity chains that emerged in the production of labor-intensive consumer goods such as garments, housewares, and furniture (Gereffi, 1995, p. 116). This global post-Fordist production system benefited small-scale manufacturers because they had flexible and laborintensive production systems that could easily integrate with global chains of production through subcontracting. Thus, the benefits of liberalization trickled down to the provinces of Anatolia in the 1990s. The establishment of the Association of Independent Industrialists and Businessmen (MUSIAD) in 1990 facilitated these developments. Unlike Istanbul-based, secular TUSIAD, MUSIAD represented SMEs based in Istanbul and Anatolian provinces and pronounced its attachment to religious and traditional values (Bugra, 1998). MUSIAD served as a catalyzer for international integration for provincial entrepreneurs by facilitating the discovery of benefits of trade in its trips to several countries in Europe, Central Asia, East Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East, its international fairs where MUSIAD members could establish new connections with actors in the global market, and its booklets and journals on a wide range of issues pertaining to macro- and microeconomic developments.7 Thus, MUSIAD substantially reduced the cost of information for devout businesses and rendered their integration with the global market easier. As MUSIAD contributed to the development of devout bourgeoisie in Turkey, it experienced substantial growth in size and power. The association

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was founded in 1990 with 12 members and opened offices in 28 cities and registered over 2,000 members over the course of 10 years. MUSIADs fastest growing branches were located in cities with improving records of exports in the postliberalization period. The relation between liberalization and growth of MUSIAD is revealed in the fact that 1,330 of 1,776 MUSIAD member companies as of 1995 were established after 1980. Many of these companies engage in foreign trade and manufacturing in traditional export sectors (Bugra, 1999). A closer look at one of the bastions of devout bourgeoisie provides further detail regarding the dynamics of change in Anatolia.

Konya: An Emerging Bastion of the Devout Bourgeoisie


Konya is a central Anatolian city, famous for its conservative and pious inhabitants. It hosts the largest MUSIAD branch after Istanbul. Konya has been a site of phenomenal economic growth in the aftermath of liberalization. GDP per capita in Konya has increased to $2,241 in 2000 from $1,300 in 1987 while the citys population has increased 25% in the same period. The change in the membership of the Konya Chamber of Commerce tells more about the flourishing economic activity in the city. There were 14,279 members in the chamber in 1994, 19,366 in 1999, and 20,734 in 2007 (Arabaci, 2007, p. 29). The number of stock companies and limited liability partnerships increased considerably during this period, pointing at the growing size and financial power of the firms. The number of stock corporations was 539 in 1988, 740 in 1994, and 1,505 in 1999. Limited liability partnerships totaled 360 in 1988, 2,347 in 1994, and 7,603 in 1999 (Arabaci, 2007, p. 29). The volume of exported goods produced in Konya has also substantially increased over the years. The number of exporting companies has doubled since 2001, whereas the value of their total exports quadrupled. According to a survey conducted by the Konya Chamber of Industry, 64% of industrialists (including subcontractors) in Konya export their products. Of all exports, 60% goes to European countries, whereas the remaining 40% goes to North Africa, the Middle East, East Asia, and Latin America.8 As Konyas economy grew, so did the power of Konya MUSIAD. Selcuk Ozturk, the current chairman, estimates that members of MUSIADs branch in Konya control 30% of Konyas economy.9 MUSIAD members dominate the boards of Konyas chambers of commerce and industry, with nine board members in the Chamber of Industry and five board members in the Chamber of Commerce. When asked about the causes of their economic success, several Konya MUSIAD members highlight the critical role MUSIAD played in

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their integration with global markets, along with Ozals liberal economic policies that changed their business prospects by showing new opportunities in the domestic and international markets. However, the change that the devout entrepreneurs experienced was not confined to the economic sphere alone. These achievements triggered a significant transformation of lifestyles and Islams role in everyday life.

Embourgeoisement of the Devout Bourgeoisie


New consumerism, which constituted an inalienable part of economic and cultural globalization, started to affect the emerging devout entrepreneurs in the 1990s through the inflow of imports, novel trade relations, and new private media. Consumerism presented a grave challenge to devout Muslims for it fundamentally opposed the Islamic principles of modesty and frugality. Nevertheless, Muslims experienced a change in their consumption patterns facilitated by marketing and advertising in Islamic media, changes in spiritual and intellectual values, and reconfiguration of space and class (Robbins, 2005, p. 16). Devout businessmen substantially increased their power in the media through the Islamic television stations and newspapers they established over the 1990s. These Islamic media channels constituted the primary means of marketing and advertising new Islamic commodities and hence transforming the buying habits of individuals by turning luxuries into necessities. Meanwhile, new apparel companies founded by devout businessmen to produce Islamic attire for women, tesettur, capitalized on this opportunity and further perpetuated the process. Tekbir Apparel, a MUSIAD member company, is the first of such companies whose marketing strategies created a fashion for tesettur particularly through fashion shows with celebrity models.10 This new fashion for Islamic attire pressured people to buy not out of need [or for religious concerns] but for stylefrom a desire to conform to what others defined as fashionable (Robbins, 2005, p. 17). Fashionization of the veil replaced concern for religious piety and observance with a concern for beauty and style. Women of devout bourgeois background satisfied their need for new styles by shopping for Turkish and foreign brand names such as Vakko, Beymen, Burberry, and Escada (Turk, 2003). In so doing they turned the brand of ones headscarf into a sign of ones status (Yavuz, 2003b, p. 281). This association has been continuously reproduced in commercials that are often shot in fancy malls and relate the product to high-status lives. In response to those who intensified their criticisms of devout bourgeois consumerism,11 founding chairman of MUSIAD, Erol Yarar (n.d., p. 39), blamed

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mystical frugality popular in Sufi Islam and its motto one mouthful food, one short coat as the source of sluggishness and lack of motivation toward the world and the main cause of the backwardness of the Muslim world. Moreover, the devout bourgeoisie attempted to obscure the line of demarcation between needs and luxury that determines the limits of consumption in Islam. MUSIAD fairs host stylish brands of Ottoman-style furniture and decoration, whereas realtors in these fairs sell luxurious residences overlooking the Kaaba in Mecca. These businessmen prefer foreign designer brands for their attire or accessories (Turk, 2003), whereas in Ramadans they eat their iftar (after-sunset feast) in five-star hotels or fancy restaurants.12 They enjoy summer vacations in five-star hotels on the coast of the Mediterranean, tailored to their Islamic sentiments.13 Devout bourgeoisie also make long-term investments in their childrens education by enrolling them in private schools, often established by other devout businessmen, that emphasize bilingual education in Turkish and English with a focus on science (Yavuz, 2003b, p. 281). Similarly, the new bourgeoisie pronounce their existence as a distinct status group by moving to the suburbs of the cities (Yavuz, 2003b, pp. 278-282). In Istanbul, the devout bourgeois families reside in up-scale suburban neighborhoods such as Florya, Beykoz, or Camlica. Reconfiguration of space is strikingly visible in a MUSIAD residential project in Konya that offers a secluded space for families of MUSIAD members. This well-protected gated complex is located in hip Meram with spacious apartments and variety of facilities, tennis courts, parking lots, and indoor fountains. Meanwhile, socialization of devout bourgeoisie increasingly takes place in shopping centers, the ultimate site of consumerism. The largest shopping center in Konya is located in the tallest building in the city, Kule-Site, which is built by a MUSIAD member, who takes pride in this accomplishment. Hence, a new class of devout bourgeoisie has taken shape with its substantial economic power, distinct tastes, consumer preferences, and transformed religious practices that set them apart from both secular bourgeoisie and devout lower classes (Yavuz, 2003a, pp. 97-100). Through these practices devout Muslims fused Islam with capitalism, modernity, and individualism. Prolongation and consolidation of this new lifestyle within the broader society necessitated changes in political preferences now dominated by pragmatism. The new political calculus forced the devout bourgeoisie to be an ardent supporter of economic liberalism as the primary mechanism of capital accumulation and democracy that would ensure a greater role in the decisionmaking process without paying the costs of Islamism or abandoning their Muslim identities in business networks or public life.

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Effects of the Emergence of the Devout Bourgeoisie on Turkish Political Islam


Devout provincial entrepreneurs had formed the core of the Islamist constituency since the establishment of the first Islamist party in 1970 by the MG movement.14 Throughout the 1970s, marginalized Anatolian business funneled their grievances about the close alliance of Istanbul-based secular big bourgeoisie and the state through the Milli Selamet Partisi (National Salvation Party; Gulalp, 2001; Onis, 1997). Islamism increased its popularity from the early 1990s onward under the Refah Partisi (RP, Welfare Party), which managed to build a cross-class coalition of winners and losers of economic reform. On one hand the RP reflected the growing aspirations of the devout bourgeoisie to consolidate their positions in the society and to achieve elite status (Onis, 1997, p. 760), and on the other it appealed to the losers of liberalization by greater reliance on the logic of redistribution (Bellin, 2000) and demanding social justice through what the RP called the Just Order program, which was a state-centered Islamic project that would deliver a larger state and extensive welfare programs (Yavuz, 2003b). Success in the 1995 elections made the RP the senior partner in a coalition government with the centerright True Path Party. The RP stayed in power for a year and had to resign as a result of culminating pressures in the aftermath of the National Security Council meeting on February 28, 1997.15 In 1998 the Constitutional Court (CC) closed down the RP. In response, the MG established the Fazilet Partisi (Virtue Party) but could not prevent the growing schism between the moderates (yenilikciler) and the hardliners (gelenekciler). The whole process strengthened the hand of the moderates, who since the late 1980s insisted that the RP should leave its radicalism based on the presentation of Islam as an ideology and embrace a centrist political vision that would allow the party to reach a wider populace (Cakir & Calmuk, 2001, p. 56). Rapprochement between the rising devout bourgeoisie and moderates crystallized into a close alliance in the aftermath of the February 28 process. Although hardliners insisted on ideological dogmatism and state interventionism, the moderates responded to the change that has been taking place within Islamist constituency. In 1998, the leader of the moderates, Erdogan, pointed to this change and claimed that the MG had increasingly distanced itself from its constituency and failed to respond to their demands (Cakir & Calmuk, 2001, p. 154). The devout bourgeoisie openly supported the moderates against the hardliners for they believed moderates political vision to be in greater conformance with their interests, new class identity, and social status.

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The hardliners statist, anti-Western, and confrontational discourse conflicted with the interests of the rising devout bourgeoisie, who desired liberal markets, minimal state intervention, a pro-Western attitude, and relatively peaceful relations with the secular state establishment.16 Erol Yarar, the founding chairman of MUSIAD, stated that the members of MUSIAD were highly skeptical of Erbakans Just Order Economic Program and they rather preferred a political cadre who could deliver a well-functioning free market (personal communication, March 14, 2007). Seyit Mehmet Buga, a Konya MUSIAD member, confirms that the main factor behind the separation within MG was its insistence on states dominance in the economy. Buga argues that the hard-liners in the RP could not realize that the age of etatism was long gone (personal communication, September 6, 2007). In short, the devout bourgeoisie longed for a leader like Ozal who could merge piety with free markets and democracy.17 The tense relations between the party and the secular establishment during the RPs incumbency further contributed to this alienation. The uneasy relations of the party with state institutions substantially increased the risks for the devout entrepreneurs within the RP constituency who would naturally desire to minimize political costs. Finally, the distance of the RP to the West and particularly the EU turned into a major concern for the devout bourgeoisie, which established close business relations with the EU countries following economic liberalization and the Customs Union finalized in 1996. In their growing confrontation with the hardliners, which climaxed in the Fazilet Party congress in 2000, the devout bourgeoisie supplied the moderates with financial and political resources. Albayrak Group, a MUSIAD member company and the chief financer of the moderates (Cakir & Calmuk, 2001, p. 151), heavily propagated the cause of the moderates through its daily newspaper, Yeni Safak, before and after the FP Congress (Yeni Safak, May and June 2000). In reaction to growing support of MUSIAD for moderates, Erbakan requested the establishment of an alternative businessmen association, ASKON, which would not attract as much following as MUSIAD (Nazli Ilicak, personal communication, February 16, 2007). Defeated in the party congress with half of the votes, the moderates left the MG movement soon after the CC closed down the FP. Devout bourgeois support for the moderates continued; 28 out of 31 businessmen MPs within the ranks of FP joined them rather than staying with the hardliners.18 When moderates established their conservative-democratic party, the AKP, in 2001 several MUSIAD members joined them to found the partys local offices in Anatolia. Numerous MUSIAD members ran on the AKP ticket in the 2002 elections, and 20 MUSIAD members were elected AKP MPs.

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Unlike the MG parties of the past, the AKP clearly separated religion and politics and claimed that religion provides meaning to believers lives and it should not have any political role beyond that. The party also adhered to a liberal and pluralist understanding of political parties and human rights as opposed to totalizing and monopolizing perception of politics and human rights of the MG. Moreover, the AKP clearly supported Turkeys accession to the EU and supported consolidation of democracy and liberal economy in the country. The close affinity between the devout bourgeoisie and the AKP is manifest in the party platform. As Ali Bayramoglu, former chairman of MUSIAD and a current AKP MP, states, the associations policy recommendations have substantively inspired the party (Turk, 2004). Indeed, the AKP party program significantly parallels MUSIADs economic and political demands. MUSIAD report on Democratization and Constitutional Reform published in 2000 clearly inspires the AKP, which, like MUSIAD, demands a more civil and democratic constitution, extension of human rights and freedoms, decentralization of administration, and greater compliance with the EU Copenhagen Criteria. Likewise, the AKP defends liberal economy and a small state, while it advocates SME-based, export-oriented economic growth. In short, the rising devout bourgeoisie, aiming to protect its economic power and consolidate its identity, which fuses Islam and capitalism, as distinct from secular bourgeoisie, could not afford costly Islamism or political passivity. These devout businessmen thus emerged as an ally to the moderate Islamists, who increasingly challenged the hardliners in the aftermath of the February 28 process. This alliance facilitated the emergence of a moderate, democratic, economically liberal, and socially conservative political party from the ranks of the MG.

Egypts Limited Economic Opening and Its Beneficiaries


The state in Egypt carried out economic liberalization in two stages in 1970s and 1990s, and in both waves of reform the state managed to preserve its dominant role in the economy. It could exert great degree of control over the effects of liberalization as well as the new private economic actors. The outcome was the accruing of benefits to a concentrated group of big business with close ties with the regime. Few benefits trickled down to SMEs, and the middle classes were impoverished by the states retreat from social welfare and employment provision. Following two decades of Arab socialism, Sadat initiated a process of economic liberalization called Infitah (Open Door Economic Policy), which was

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designed to give a greater role to the private actors in the economy. The main goals of the Infitah at its inception in 1974 were to attract foreign capital and foreign direct investment, to stimulate private sector, and to increase the efficiency of the public sector enterprises (Waterbury, 1985, p. 66). The way the Egyptian government designed economic opening led to major developments in financial and commercial sectors without generating any significant change in the manufacturing sector and its export capacity. Most of the foreign investment entered Egypt in the early years of the Infitah was directed to construction, petroleum, and services sector, that is, tourism and banking. None of these sectors provided Egypt with new sources of employment or exportable surplus. Foreign investors were mostly interested in establishing joint venture banks to extract foreign exchange remittances from Egyptian depositors for profitable placements abroad than in investing in Egyptian enterprise (Moore, 1986, p. 634). Even when these joint venture banks invested in Egyptian undertakings, they preferred financing foreign trade (Moore, 1986, p. 643) because the governments interest rate policy had the effect of discouraging investment in tradable agriculture and industry in favor of commercial transactions (Shafik, 1994, p. 17). During the Infitah the state managed to retain its centrality in the economy because of extensive rents collected in the 1970s and 1980s such as oil, remittances of migrant labor in the Gulf, Suez Canal revenues, tourism, international aid from the West (Springborg, 1989, p. 154), and legal regulations. One such regulation concerned joint ventures between public companies and private investors. What seems, at first, to be back door privatization was in fact another route for the government to extend its control over the emerging private sector (Springborg, 1989, p. 151). That is why the public sector expanded over 3.5% per annum between 1973 and 1982 (Shafik, 1994, p. 13). Such a prominent role preserved by the state in a relatively liberal economy led to the emergence of state bourgeoisie, composed of managers, technocrats, and high-level bureaucrats who are in close contact with foreign and private capital (Waterbury, 1991). Along with state bourgeoisie Infitah has also given birth to a new bourgeois class that has grown heavily dependent on the state that reigned over the banking sector in joint ventures, determined the interest and exchange rates, shaped the course of investment through various incentives, and handed down large-scale public projects to the new class of oligopolists. It was mostly the public sector and big business in joint ventures that benefited from this policy. SMEs have been deprived access to the same attractive rules offered to large firms (Hondoussa, cited in Springborg, 1989, p. 159). Most of these decisions in favor of big business were extensions of close and personal connections between the state and the Infitah bourgeoisie. For

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instance, big businesses hired former cabinet members with no prior experience in the private sector as board chairmen, general managers, or advisers (Ibrahim, 1994, p. 21). Or these businessmen joined the ranks of the ruling National Democratic Party and got elected to the Peoples Assembly. In 1987, there were more than 80 members of the Infitah bourgeoisie in the Assembly, compared to fewer than 20 in 1976. Prominent figures of the new bourgeoisie also found the opportunity to sit in the cabinet as ministers. The percentage of businessmen in cabinet appointments increased from 2.4 in 1970 to 14.7 in 1981 and to 20 in 1990 (Ibrahim, 1994). The Infitah has provided devout businessmen with opportunities of expansion as well. In the 1980s the Islamic financial sector emerged and developed as Islamic banks and Islamic investment companies handsomely benefited from Infitah policies. The two major Islamic banks in Egypt, the Faisal Islamic Bank and the International Islamic Bank for Investment and Development, channeled most of their activity to either short-term trade financing, which carries relatively little risk, or foreign currency and precious metals speculation (Ayubi, 1991, p. 185). Islamic investment companies also flourished in the same period; their number reached 50 in 1980s, as they gained the lions share of workers remittances (Moore, 1990, p. 249). They operated like venture capital firms, paying depositors on the basis of the profitability of their portfolio rather than a fixed rate of interest. These funds were unregulated and uninsured but were able to mobilize substantial savings with high rates of return (Shafik, 1994, p. 18), which was possible because of substantial profits they made in currency speculation, gold trade, real estate, and commerce (Moore, 1990, p. 250). Manufacturing was a marginal undertaking for Islamic investment companies because of greater risks and lower returns associated with this particular sector. Expansion of devout bourgeoisie in the finance sector in the 1980s was stalled when the government imposed reporting requirements and a regulatory structure on the Islamic funds in 1988 that in turn triggered numerous bankruptcies (Moore, 1990). By the late 1980s, Islamic investment companies lost their power in the financial sector, whereas Islamic banks managed to hold on to their activities albeit in a smaller scale as their clientelemigrant workersshrank in the late 1980s as a result of the recession in the Gulf. Although the state built strong and intimate ties with big business, SMEs during Infitah did not receive any assistance from the state or the secular and Islamic financial institutions. Because they were deprived of incentives and access to cheap credit, they had to rely on their own resources for capital accumulation. Moreover, because their business ventures have not rested on strategic relationships with the bureaucracy or the political elite and because there is no organized group that could defend their collective interests, they

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have been vulnerable to arbitrary and frequently destructive interventions of the bureaucracy (Springborg, 1989, pp. 78-80). Finally, the states reluctance to pursue an export-oriented growth strategy deprived the SMEs of the opportunities in the international markets that their Turkish counterparts substantively enjoyed.

Economic Stabilization in the 1990s


In the 1980s, Egypt suffered economic crises that could not be solved by oil and tourism rents. The gap between investment and savings grew exponentially as the state directed already scarce sources for investment to infrastructure and neglected the manufacturing and agricultural sectors in favor of commercial and service sectors while simultaneous boosts in imports culminated in an ever-growing deficit in the current account.19 The government financed the gap by borrowing, making Egypt the most indebted country in the world (Richards, 1991, p. 1723). Mubarak signed a stand-by agreement with the International Monetary Fund in the 1991 for economic stabilization and structural adjustment. Soon the macroeconomic indicators improved.20 The state has taken steps to liberalize trade and finance, to deregulate prices, and to make Egyptian pound convertible. However, the Mubarak regime was not as successful in enacting structural reforms. The state maintained its predominant position in the economy. State-owned banks controlled 70% of all bank assets; privatization of the state-owned enterprises (SOEs) remained dawdling (91 out of 314 SOEs were privatized, only 9 had a change in management; Shafik, 1994, p. 18). The state continued to support big business primarily through investments in transportation and communications sectors and bids in airport and road development projects on which big business could embark. Although big business enjoyed the benefits, the business environment remained unfriendly for the SMEs. A survey concludes that small firms suffer more than larger firms do from institutional constraints such as tax administration, dispute settlement, cost of access to finance, and unofficial payments made to state agents (Fawzy, 1998). The reason is that the SMEs have limited access to the state mechanism and limited or no personal connections to the state elite. Therefore, they have no political assets to counterbalance the unlimited discretionary power of the tax collector or a way of avoiding unofficial payments made to the bureaucracy (Fawzy, 1998). In sum, the two-staged economic liberalization in Egypt generated a different outcome than the Turkish case. Economic policies in Egypt enabled the state to construct a new winners circle mostly composed of big business

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and state bourgeoisie, pushing small and medium entrepreneurs and the middle and lower classes to the sidelines. As a result, the devout bourgeoisie emerged divided and ineffective. Small devout businessmen have never found the opportunity to expand, given the unfavorable economic environment for small-scale manufacturers. Only big businesses owned by devout families could grow in this economic environment and could do so heavily dependent on the state. Despite its limits and ineffectiveness, a process of embourgeoisement nevertheless took place among devout upper classes.

New Devout Bourgeois Culture in Egypt


Globalization combined with economic liberalization under the states control brought conspicuous consumption, shopping malls, gated communities, and Western-style vacations to the lives of devout upper-class Egyptians (Bayat, 2007, p. 165). As a new devout bourgeois class has taken shape Islamist practices underwent a process of embourgeoisement that ultimately divorced political and official Islamic content from these practices. Veiling, a critical symbol of Islamist politics in the 1970s and 1980s, has become increasingly an item of luxurious consumption in the bourgeois culture of upper class Egyptian women. Hijab, which had been a sign of equality and decency for the Islamist movements, now turned into a sign of status and taste for bourgeois women, who shop in fancy boutiques in Egypt and Europe (Haenni & Tammam, 2003). And as they do so they follow the new trends and styles in magazines such as Hijab Fashion, for they desire to conform to fashion and accentuate their individuality rather than their Islamic modesty. The uneasy combination of piety and privilege in new patterns of consumption and new forms of observing Islam has been justified by the new preachers in Egypt. Amr Khaled, the most popular of them all, first appeared in late 1990s in salon-style gatherings with his designer suits, Hugo Boss shirts, and tie and clean-shaven face, and he looked more like a televangelist than the ulama of al-Azhar. Amr Khaled talks about attaining the values of liberal modernity: ambition, success, hard work, and efficiency. For him, Muslims should seek wealth through hard work and ambition, and they should never be ashamed of their material possessions. He assures his nouveau riche audience that they could be pious while maintaining their power and prestige (Bayat, 2007, p. 153): I want to be rich so that people will look at me and say You see, rich and religious, and they will love God through my wealth.... I want

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to have money and the best clothes to make people love Gods religion. (quoted in Haenni & Tammam, 2003) As for political preferences, Egypts small devout bourgeoisie followed a different path from their Turkish counterparts. The pervasive state role in economy rendered the devout bourgeoisie dependent on the state for preservation of affluence and economic power. Although this dependence rendered Islamism increasingly risky, the new lifestyles with novel values of consumerism decreased the affinity between the devout bourgeoisie and mainstream Islamist ideology. Thus, they embraced passive piety rather than Islamist political activism (Bayat, 2007, p. 7).

Political Connections of the Devout Bourgeoisie


Political Islam shows a greater diversity in Egypt than it does in Turkey. Although militant Islamist groups made to the headlines often in the 1970s and 1990s with assassinations and attacks on tourists and Copts, they remained mostly insignificant and fragmented within broader Islamism (Bayat, 2007, p. 40). Since 1928 the MB has determined the course of Islamism in Egypt and has monopolized the terrain in recent years. The primary goal of the brotherhood has been the establishment of an Islamic society and state that fully conforms to Sharia (Mitchell, 1969). The MB followed mostly a gradualist method of Islamizing the society primarily through dawa (invitation to God) that would ultimately deliver the Islamic state. In his first decade in power Mubarak accommodated the MB, without bestowing legality to the organization, and allowed it to run in elections in alliance with legal parties. From the early 1980s onward the MB added the parliament and professional associations to its areas of activism. The middlegeneration Muslim Brothers capitalized well on the opportunities of participation and achieved success at the polls and overwhelming victory in the professional associations in the late 1980s and early 1990s. A wave of state repression in response to the increasing power of the MB particularly in the professional associations exposed the internal strife between the moderate and conservative Brothers. The moderates, who had demanded that the MB pursue legality, greater cooperation with secular opposition, and internal democracy within the organization, accused the conservative old guard of being autocratic, ideologically rigid, and obsessed with internal unity and discipline (Wickham, 2002, p. 217). When the old guard insisted on staying the course, a group of Muslim Brothers left the movement to establish the Wasat Party in 1996. The Wasat distanced itself

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from the MBs authoritarianism and scriptural dogmatism and sought to build a new polity around a civilizational concept of Islam that was more inclusive and pluralist than the MBs vision that treats Islam as religion and state (din wa-dawla; Stacher, 2002; Wickham, 2004). Those moderates who decided to stay in the MB continued their struggle to reform the organization from within. Led by Essam al-Erian and Abu al-Futuh, the moderates convinced the old guard that establishing a Muslim Brothers party would serve the interests of the movement. However, significant divisions persist within the movement over issues pertaining to democracy, citizenship, minority, and womens rights as well as the place of a prospective Muslim Brothers party within the larger organization. The conservative old guard believes that a formal political party would prolong the existence of the MB given the existing institutional constraints, but they contend that a prospective Muslim Brothers party should be an organic extension of the society of the Muslim Brothers. As such the party would be an arm of the MB active in politics, whereas its other arms reach religion, business, education, and charity. Moderate Muslim Brothers, however, ask for an independent Muslim Brothers political party with no organic ties with the organization and separation of the MBs religious functions from its political activity.21 Such a separation would secure the party from the authority of the old guard and democratization of membership by removing the existing obstacles before membership of women and non-Muslims. Though moderates introduced concepts such as citizenship, democracy, and pluralism to the discourse of the MB through testimonies released in 1990s and 2000s, contradictory remarks by different MB leaders regarding democracy, the rights of the Coptic minority, and womens status illustrate unresolved disputes and the lack of consensus among the brothers.22 Nor does the moderates rhetoric of pluralism and popular eliminate references to the supremacy of Sharia or idioms such as Islam is the solution or Islam is both religion and state (Bayat, 2007, p. 186). Thus, the brotherhoods new discourse on democracy appears ambivalent as it signifies a set of procedures that facilitate the implementation of Sharia rather than a system that expresses the will of the populace to govern themselves (Bayat, 2007, p. 177). An important factor that contributes to this ambivalent position toward democracy is the distribution of power within the Islamist constituency. Ideological dogmatism prevails over pragmatism within the ranks of the MB. This is partly because of the weakness of pragmatist elements, primarily the devout bourgeoisie within the Islamist constituency. There are two primary reasons as to why the devout bourgeoisie generally avoids connections with the brotherhood. First, for those who are sympathetic to the cause of the brotherhood, such

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a connection carries considerable political and economic risks. Owner of the Rayan Group, Ahmad Tawfik Abd al-Fatah, confirmed these risks: The business of working with money requires stability, not continuous change or surprises, and certainly not getting into dangerous political games (Moore, 1990, p. 252). The fact that it is too costly to confront the state given the high level of dependency of the bourgeoisie, secular and devout alike, forces them to ally with elements in the state apparatus and the official press by employing ex-ministers, governors, outspoken editors, and journalists (Ayubi, 1991, p. 193). These high costs attached to Islamism became once more apparent when the state cracked down on the businessmen affiliated with the MB in early 2007. Khariat al-Shater, as a prominent leader of the brotherhood, paid for this involvement in Islamism when he, along with other businessmen associated with the MB, was tried before the military tribunal and sentenced to several years in prison following the most recent cycle of state repression. Second, the values of the new bourgeois lifestyle conflict with the Islamic values internalized by the MB. The devout bourgeois concern for capitalist accumulation and consumption directly contradicts the MBs vision of Islam based on humbleness and modesty. Muslim Brothers express their disdain of the new trend propagated by Amr Khaled by calling it air-conditioned Islam. Because the devout bourgeoisie and the Muslim Brothers represent different status groups with different values and lifestyles, the followers of air-conditioned Islam either remain apolitical or stay closer to the more democratic Wasat Party (Haenni & Tammam, 2003). Five businessmen sitting on the board of the Wasat Party epitomize its appeal to the devout bourgeoisie. The WP leader al-Madi confirms this connection between his party and the new trend and claims that his party represents the interests of the medium-size devout bourgeoisie and upper-middle-class professionals (personal communication, July 11, 2007). Ultimately, the MB remains predominantly an organization of the educated lower-middle classes and professionals (Bayat, 2007; Clark, 2004; Wickham, 2002). The MBs exceptional success in the professional syndicates in the early 1990s and its comparative absence in business associations demonstrate the predominance of the professional class among the ranks of the organization. The greater strength of the lower-middle classes has crucial implications for the MBs political vision. The middle and lower classes have been among the losers of economic liberalization programs that led to the retreat of the state from the welfare services, cancellation of the graduate program, slow but ongoing privatization, and increasing impoverishment and unemployment. This meant the annulment of the social contract concluded between Nasser and the middle classes following the revolution. Economic reforms increasingly led to economic, political, and social marginalization of the new middle classes,

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who aspired for upward mobilization but instead experienced decreasing wages, inadequate housing, and unemployment (Clark, 1996, p. 39). The new middle classes disappointment with the state fed into a growing adherence to the ideal of an Islamic state that would deliver higher status, better lives and prestige for professionals by justly acknowledging and rewarding merit (Wickham, 2002, p. 160). These professionals indeed started constructing this Islamic polity as an alternative to the secular state through dawa, which served as an ideological framework that mobilized them on the basis of interests and ideas through mosques and private voluntary organizations, that is, clinics, schools, hospitals, day care centers, and vocational training centers (Wickham, 2002, pp. 161-162). These organizations represented ideology through action by showing the shortcomings of the secular state following its retreat from social services (Clark, 2004, p. 12). In short, Islam as din wa-dawla would deliver the future that the new middle classes have dreamed of. The way the Egyptian state pursued economic liberalization had significant implications for Islamic constituency and its political preferences. First, the government implemented economic liberalization in such a way that the benefits of liberalization accrued predominantly to the big business. SMEs, unlike their Turkish counterparts, have not benefited from liberalization, thus the expansion of devout bourgeoisie was curtailed. Second, continued state dominance in the economy combined with ongoing confrontation with the Islamists had significant consequences for the activity of devout bourgeoisie within political movements. Because of high costs associated with political Islamic activity, many devout businessmen have remained apolitical, whereas some parts of devout bourgeoisie stayed closer to the moderate and less confrontational line of the Wasat Party. This ultimately left the mainstream political Islam under the dominance of lower-middle classes whose interests have been hurt by economic reforms and who demand an Islamic state to replace the existing corrupt and exclusionary regime. The current makeup of the Islamist constituency prolongs the hesitant moderation within the MB where moderate voices remain weak vis--vis the conservatives. This is why mainstream political Islamism cannot successfully internalize democratic principles. It is why the moderate WP remains marginal and weak as opposed to the more prominent MB.

Conclusion
The diverging paths of economic reform in Turkey and Egypt have generated different effects on the Islamist constituencies in these two countries. Economic liberalization has played both a constitutive and a causal role in

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transformation of political Islam in Turkey by facilitating the growth of a strong devout bourgeoisie with vested interests in liberalism and democracy and increasing its power within the broader Islamist constituency. In Egypt, in contrast, the way the state implemented economic reform prevented the formation of a strong and independent devout bourgeoisie that could be assertive in political Islam. It was primarily the losers from reform who populated the Islamist constituency and entrench Islamism in ideological positions rather than pragmatism. The socioeconomic developments within political Islamic constituencies indeed fill in the gaps left by inclusion, political learning, and repression-based explanations of political Islamic change in Turkey and Egypt. The emergence of a strong and well-organized devout bourgeoisie in Turkey triggered a significant ideological change in the Turkish political Islamic tradition that showed no signs of ideological change in three decades following its inclusion in the democratic political system. Only after the constituency of the political Islamic party experienced significant economic, social, and political changes did Turkish political Islam embrace ideological moderation, while in Egypt moderates within political Islamic movements failed to induce broader ideological change. The weak and divided nature of Egyptian devout bourgeoisie is a reason as to why moderates both within and outside of the MB could not defeat the conservatives and incur substantial moderation in Islamism. Acknowledgments
An earlier version of this article was published in the Robert Schuman Centre Advanced Studies Working Paper Series. I would like to thank John E. Echeverri-Gent, William B. Quandt, Carol M. Mershon, Thomas W. Smith, Jeff Haynes, Guy Ben-Porat, Ioannis N. Grigoriadis, Nora Fisher, and two anonymous referees for their comments on the article.

Declaration of Conflicting Interests


The author declared no potential conflicts of interests with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Financial Disclosure/Funding
The author received no financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article.

Notes
1. By democratic principles this article refers to liberal norms of democracy that include civil, political, and social rights and pluralism.

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2. This article adopts the distinction made between tactical (strategic) and ideological moderation in the literature. Tactical moderation refers to strategic adaptation of Islamists to the institutional environment often observed as acceptance of the rules of electoral competition without abandoning the overall goal of establishing an Islamic state. Ideological moderation, on the other hand, refers to abandonment or revision of Islamist goals. It entails a substantial commitment to democratic principles such as political pluralism, peaceful alternation of power, and citizenship rights (Wickham, 2004, p. 206). The primary puzzle of this article is belated ideological moderation in Turkey and marginal ideological moderation in Egypt. 3. The Islamic political parties were closed down in 1970, 1980, 1998, and 2000, and the leader of Islamists, Erbakan, was banned from politics in 1980 and 1998. 4. The fact that the devout entrepreneurs attain greater wealth and new social status does not lead to the disappearance of religion as a system of meaning in their lives (Tugal, 2002). The concept of alternative modernity well captures this synthesis of capitalism and Islam constructed by the devout bourgeoisie. 5. This alliance was possible because of the high degree of independence of the devout bourgeoisie from the state for profit accumulation. Because profitability is not subject to the discretionary support of the state through subsidized inputs, protected markets, and cronyism (Bellin, 2000, p. 184), the new bourgeoisie could enjoy political activism as a means of protecting their new status. 6. Turkish Statistical Institute, Foreign Trade Statistics (http://www.tuik.gov.tr/ VeriBilgi.do?tb_id=12&ust_id=4, retrieved January 4, 2008). 7. For information on the Association of Independent Industrialists and Businessmen (MUSIAD) activities, see www.musiad.org.tr. 8. See the Konya Chamber of Industry (www.kso.org.tr). 9. This and the following information was collected through a series of interviews conducted with 15 MUSIAD members in Konya between September 2 and November 12, 2007. 10. For a detailed study of tesettur companies, see Binark and Kilicbay (2000). 11. More radical and revolutionary groups and prominent intellectuals of Islamist movement such as Mehmet Sevket Eygi and Ali Bulac heavily criticized emerging embourgeoisement and consumerism within devout upper classes. For a study of these divisions, see Tugal (2002). 12. For changing practices in Ramadan, see Sandikci and Omeraki (2007). 13. A sector of Islamic vacationing provided by five-star hotels in compliance with Islamic rules became increasingly popular in the 1990s. These hotels serve devout bourgeois families with gender-segregated beaches, and they refuse to serve alcohol. 14. The Milli Gorus (MG) movement under the leadership of Necmettin Erbakan has implicitly envisioned an Islamic state, and it explicitly aimed for Islamization of Turkish society. The movement established the National Order Party in 1970, the

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National Salvation Party in 1971, the Welfare Party (RP) in 1983, and the Virtue Party in 1998. 15. The military wing of the NSC demanded Prime Minister Erbakan during the meeting on February 28 to take steps to eradicate Islamist reactionary activism in Turkey and hence started a new period known as the February 28 process that entails a major crackdown on Islamism by the secular establishment. In this process, the Constitutional Court shut down the RP in 1998 and banned several politicians including its leader Erbakan from politics, whereas succeeding coalition governments reinstated the headscarf ban in the universities and extended compulsory education to 8 years to cut down on the demand for religious vocational schools. 16. One might ask why the devout bourgeoisie did not simply turn to the Center Right parties but tried to transform Islamists. Indeed, the devout bourgeois was longing for a party like Ozals Motherland (ANAP) with closer ties to pious groups in society and clear preference for economic and political liberalization and Europeanization. ANAP, however, after Ozals death in 1992, distanced itself from conservatives and allied with liberalsecular upper classes. Clearly, they would not cater to the devout identity of the rising bourgeoisie. Moreover, Center Right parties were facing significant corruption charges that made them noncredible alternatives. Having no other place to turn, the devout bourgeoisie tilted the balance of power within the MG movement via its financial and political support in favor of moderates. 17. Not surprisingly, Erdogan insistently identified with Ozals policies and resorted to his legacy after he and other moderates established the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi in 2001 (Yavuz, 2003a, p. 258). 18. Based on the information provided by the Grand National Assembly (www .tbmm.gov.tr). 19. Of the total investment, 45% was concentrated in infrastructure, and less than 20% of infrastructure-related investments were related to the manufacturing sector (Richards, 1991, p. 1722). 20. The public deficit to GDP ratio shrank to 3%; the inflation rate was cut back to 7%. 21. Essam al-Eryan clearly states this necessity in his article titled Towards the Renaissance in Al-Ahram Weekly Online (http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2005/771/ op71.htm). 22. Although moderates claim that the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) stands for equal rights for Copts and women, former supreme guide Mashur argued that the state should impose jizya (poll tax) on the Copts. Likewise, former supreme guide Omar al-Tilmissani stated, I do not like to talk about women.... I want nothing to do with modern theories and the equality of men and women.... A woman who believes that she

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is equal to a man is a woman who has lost her femininity, virtue, and dignity. (El-Ghobashy, 2005, p. 382) MB contends that Copts and women cannot become president.

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Bio
Sebnem Gumuscu is a PhD candidate in the Department of Politics at University of Virginia in Charlottesville, VA.

Downloaded from cps.sagepub.com at TEXAS A&M UNIV on August 2, 2010

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