Islamist Parties and Political Normalization in the Muslim World

Conclusion: The New Dynamism of Islamist Parties

Conclusion The New Dynamism of Islamist Parties julie chernov hwang quinn mecham In the aftermath of newly democratic elections in both Egypt and Tunisia in 2011, which resulted in dramatic showings for the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (Al-Hurriya wa al-’Adala), Egypt’s Salafi Light (Al-Nour) Party, and the Tunisian Renaissance Party (Al-Nahda), interest in the behavior of Islamist parties has increased. Scholars and policy-makers have sought to analyze the election results in Egypt and Tunisia and address potential implications of the Islamist victories. However, electoral success by Islamist parties is not particularly new, as Islamists have regularly competed in elections for decades around the world. What is new is that these electoral victories took place in the context of founding elections in transitional regimes emerging from authoritarian Arab states, which to that point had held only highly managed elections to lend a veneer of democracy to longstanding dictatorships. This volume has sought to assess the strategic behavior of Islamist parties throughout the Muslim world, centering not only on the Middle East but also on Muslim Asia, which contains both two-thirds of the world’s Muslims and some of its most open and democratic political systems. Through examining the identity and actions of Islamist parties across issues of platform, constituency, normalization and moderation, coalition building , and movement-party dynamics, the authors of this volume have collectively highlighted both areas of striking commonality in Islamist party behavior and sharp divergences in strategic decision-making. A central message of this book is that Islamist parties are not monolithic , but represent a diverse set of interests and political behaviors that are 176 Julie Chernov Hwang and Quinn Mecham intrinsically tied to the conditions they face in their given domestic contexts . A second key message is that Islamist parties differ little in their strategic behavior from other types of political parties. Specifically, these parties respond to strategic constraints and opportunities; they attempt to balance assuaging the concerns of their base with expanding their network of potential supporters; they debate the extent to which certain strategies and policy programs can yield the desired results; and they pursue electoral success as they choose to define it. As shown in this volume, Islamist parties have been active players in polities from Morocco to Yemen to Indonesia for decades. Where political liberalization and democratization have enabled the potential for securing political access through the popular vote, Islamist parties are responding to the strategic incentives in their respective political systems and participating in elections in a variety of democratic, semidemocratic , and semi-authoritarian contexts. In this process, they are also assessing the extent to which both the normalization of their political behavior and the moderation of their ideological positions is strategically beneficial, given the reality of their current political base and possibility of future electoral gains. Moreover, as Islamist parties participate regularly in elections , they have varied degrees of success depending on their strategic choices and the political context in their polities. Some parties win elections outright or become major political players through elections, while others seem content with a loyal base of supporters and small share of the vote. As the opportunities for participation have increased and Islamist parties have gained more experience with legislative and electoral politics, many of these parties have adjusted their platforms, vision, and goals accordingly. They have implicitly postponed some of their goals to the distant future, reassessed the viability of others, and even abandoned certain preferences that are dramatically out of step with tthose of the majority of Muslims in their polities. Other Islamist parties, by contrast, choose to hold fast to their original raison d’être. Now more than ever, there is a dynamic range of Islamist parties to assess, given the opportunities and constraints available in a wider variety of political systems throughout the Muslim world. Thus, the very term Islamist party has a broader meaning than it did two decades ago, when the Islamic Salvation Front (FIS) in Algeria, the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood and affiliates, and the clerical establishment that consolidated the Iranian revolution were primary reference points. Today, Islamist parties the world over cannot afford to ignore the fantastic Conclusion 177 political success of the AKP in Turkey, which has won a majority of seats in the Turkish government in three successive elections (2002, 2007, 2011), increasing its share of the popular...