A Comparative Study of the Durability of States and Regimes and Dissident Movements in Iraq, Egypt, and Turkey, 1948–2003
It is striking to observe how often social and political movements, mobilizing small segments of society, have highlighted the lack of legitimacy of the states and regimes of the Middle East throughout the twentieth century. On the other hand, it is just as remarkable to see regimes with limited legitimacy demonstrating sustained durability. Most of the long lasting dissident movements arise from dynamics either of claims by a minority – meaning legally minor groups who are living a reality of a qualitative and differential order and a condition of dependence or experienced as such – (e.g. Kurds in Turkey and Iraq) or they are to a large extent made up of members of “minorities” (e.g. Alevis within leftist movements in Turkey). The other long-lasting contestation most of the Middle Eastern regimes have had to face is that of an Islamic tone (e.g. the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt). Hence, the question arises as to whether these three types of dissent movements are “revealing” about the states’ crisis, of their level of legitimacy and their durability. Concretely, the project will emphasize the political ingenuity of the states, and modes of construction and stabilization of the dissident movements in the long term through the study of a specific site of interaction – the university milieu – between the actors mentioned above.
