Courses

Prerequisites: application requirements: SEE UNDERGRAD SEMINAR SECTION OF DEPARTMENT'S WEBSITE. Where the establishment of sustainable democracies is concerned, the Middle East has perhaps the poorest record of all regions of the world since World War II. This is in spite of the fact that two of the first constitutions in the non-Western world were established in this region, in the Ottoman Empire in 1876 and in Iran in 1906. Notwithstanding these and other subsequent democratic and constitutional experiments, Middle Eastern countries have been ruled over the past century by some of the world's last absolute monarchies, as well as a variety of other autocratic, military-dominated and dictatorial regimes. This course, intended primarily for advanced undergraduates, explores this paradox. It will examine the evolution of constitutional thought and practice, and how it was embodied in parliamentary and other democratic systems in the Middle East. It will examine not only the two Ottoman constitutional periods of 1876-78 and 1908-18, and that of Iran from 1905 onwards, but also the various precursors to these experiments, and some of their 20th century sequels in the Arab countries, Turkey and Iran. This will involve detailed study of the actual course of several Middle Eastern countries' democratic experiments, of the obstacles they faced, and of their outcomes. Students are expected to take away a sense of the complexities of the problems faced by would-be Middle Eastern democrats and constitutionalists, and of some of the reasons why the Middle East has appeared to be an exception to a global trend towards democratization in the post-Cold War era.