Religious regimes and prospects for liberal politics: Futures of Iran, Iraq and Saudi Arabia

This paper interrogates Huntington's civilizational perspective in order to assess its power to explain cultural change in a non-Western context. As an alternative, it considers cultural change as issues resolutions. The paper then suggests that the nature of the national regime is one of the m...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Futures : the journal of policy, planning and futures studies planning and futures studies, 2010-08, Vol.42 (6), p.532-544
Main Author: Moaddel, Mansoor
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Civilization
Cultural Change
Equality
Future
Iran
Iraq
Islamic countries
Liberalism
Nationalism
Religion & politics
Religion Politics Relationship
Saudi Arabia
Secularism
Studies
Trends
Values
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:This paper interrogates Huntington's civilizational perspective in order to assess its power to explain cultural change in a non-Western context. As an alternative, it considers cultural change as issues resolutions. The paper then suggests that the nature of the national regime is one of the most important factors that shapes resolutions of issues—hence the state as one of the best predictors of the future of cultures in Islamic countries. From the values surveys carried out in Iran, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, this article extrapolates trends in values change among the publics from these countries. Key features of these trends include shifts toward liberal democracy and individualism among Iranians, toward secular politics and nationalism among Iraqis, and away from religiosity and toward support for gender equality among Saudis.
ISSN:0016-3287
1873-6378
DOI:10.1016/j.futures.2010.01.004