Democratic Community: Nomos XXXV

12. Can an Islamic Group Aid Democratization?

12 CAN AN ISLAMIC GROUP AID DEMOCRATIZATION? BRUCE K. RUTHERFORD When one thinks of opposition in a democracy, organizations such as the British Labor Party, the French Conservative Party, and the German Social Democratic Party come to mind. These share several characteristics: regular elections of leaders, annual conferences where party policy is debated, and some institutional mechanisms for rendering the organization responsive to the wishes of its members. They usually express unwavering commitment to democratic government, pursue power only through electoral means, and cooperate with the regime on many aspects of day-to-day governing. They constitute a "loyal opposition" that facilitates the daily business of democratic government and channels dissent into politically manageable forms. A less typical kind ofopposition also contributes to democratic politics: associations that are undemocratic in ipternal organization and/or goals. For example, the Catholic church has served as a democratizing opposition in many settings. From Poland to The field research for this article was funded by the Program on Southwest Asia and Islamic Civilization, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University. I am very grateful to the program's director, Andrew Hess, for his support and advice. I also received many valuable suggestions from Ian Shapiro and John Chapman. Any errors are, of course, mine alone. 313 314 Bruce K. Rutherford Spain to the Philippines, it has opposed dictatorships vigorously, as well as aided the construction of democratic political institutions .I Yet, it is clearly not a democratic organization. Few institutions in Western societies are more hierarchical or show greater indifference to the views of their members. An even more striking example can be found in the communist parties of Western Europe during the 1960s and 1970s. Particularly in France and Italy, Eurocommunist parties were not only internally undemocratic, but they pursued the objective of ending "bourgeois democracy." Yet, the tactics employed by these parties included participation in democratic institutions such as elections, parliaments, and even governments. As a result , these institutions were strengthened. Furthermore, participation in democratic politics seems to have gradually transformed Eurocommunism's objectives to the point where they became reformist rather than revolutionary. By the early 1980s, Eurocommunists were advocating incremental changes that would leave Europe's political systems intact.2 The contribution of undemocratic social movements to democracy has received serious attention from political theorists. Tocqueville argued that a stable democracy needed undemocratic religious groups in its civil society.3 He believed that a "principle of authority" in religion was necessary to delineate a set of core values that could provide the foundation for a functioning society, as well as offset the negative influences of individualism and materialism. For these reasons, dogmatic religion helps citizens to realize their "self-interest properly understood .,,4 He predicted that Roman Catholicism, the most autocratic major religion of his day, would assume a central role in American democracy. Its "discipline and great unity" would render it far more attractive to the fledgling democrats than any variant of Protestantism.5 The premise that undemocratic groups can contribute to democracy is developed further in the literature on interest group pluralism. Bentley's classic statement excludes any reference to a group's ideology or objectives. He attends exclusively to how the group behaves: the interest it represents; its relative power; its intensity; and, its technique.6 Its internal characteristics and objectives are irrelevant, as long as it participates in politics ac- CAN AN ISLAMIC GROUP AID DEMOCRATIZATION? 315 cording to the rules of democratic procedure. V. O. Key agrees, arguing that democracy is not the adoption of a pervasive set of "democratic beliefs," but rather the competition of interests mediated by a government that protects the public's interest.7 Schumpeter reiterated this emphasis on process and procedure in his definition of democracy as "that institutional arrangement for arriving at political decisions in which individuals [representatives ] acquire the power to decide by means of a competitive struggle for the people's vote."s In the political development literature, Rustow explores this concept of democracy at some length, holding that democracies often emerge from competition among organizations pursuing goals unrelated to democratization.9 Democratic institutions develop as a functional response to conflict in society. In this perspective, democracy is an unintentional byproduct of competition. Despite this theoretical and empirical literature on the democratizing potential of some undemocratic groups, scholars have not applied its explanatory power to the Islamic world. Islamic groups are generally regarded...