Non-Cosmopolitan Universalism: On Armitage's Foundations of International Political Thought

Summary

In Foundations of Modern International Thought, David Armitage provides a genealogy of the multiple foundations of international political thought. But he also enables political theorists to reflect on the nature of the pluralisation of our concepts: that is, the way various components come together (or apart) in particular circumstances to form a concept that either becomes dominant or is rendered to the margins. Armitage claims that concepts can ‘never entirely escape their origins’. In this paper I explore this claim from the perspective of contemporary debates about the nature of cosmopolitan political thought.     

Islamic Banking in Practice: the Case of Pakistan

In Islamic banking rules apply which differ from those in traditional banking. This article first discusses the consequences of Islamic banking for financial operations in general, then goes on to examine the Islamic procedures introduced in Pakistan's banking sector since 1985. Considering the drastic change in procedures, the effect of Islamization on this sector has been moderate. One reason for this is that banks in Pakistan have consistently opted for financial instruments closely resembling interest-based finance. Another reason is that their behaviour has been determined to a large extent by the fact that they are state-owned.     

The Limits of Sasanian History: Between Iranian,Islamic and Late Antique Studies

This essay discusses the position of Sasanian Studies from its inception in the late nineteenth century, to its reinvigoration at the beginning of the twenty-first century. The work also discusses the development of the field of Sasanian history and civilization vis-à-vis the three fields of Iranian, Islamic and Late Antique Studies. It is posited that Sasanians have benefited from cross-disciplinary and new historical frameworks that go beyond the traditional field of Iranian Studies, which was never as interested in the history of the period.     

Support for Women Officeholders in a Non-Arab Islamic Democracy: The Case of Indonesia

Recent work argues that the relationship between Islamic faith, the lack of support for gender equality and democratization is spurious. This paper analyzes the correlates of individual support for increasing the number of women serving in Indonesian legislatures. Indonesia is a relevant case because it is an emerging democracy, outside of the oil-rich Middle East, where over 85% of the citizenry registers a Muslim faith. We find that the willingness of Indonesians to support or oppose gender equity in politics is only minimally rooted in their faith or culture. This result buttresses the conclusions of cross-national studies that question the appropriateness of treating predominantly Muslim nations in the same way when studying questions of gender equity and democratization.     

Limits to Democratic Development in Civil Society and the State: The Case of Santo Domingo

Some scholars see civil society as key to democratization of the political system. In this view, pressure from civil society forces democratization of the state. However, this disregards the fact that changes in civil society's behaviour require changes in political society — changes are reciprocal. The demand–making strategies of grassroots organizations in the Dominican Republic in 1999 provide a good example of this dynamic: the incomplete nature of the democratic transition (specifically, the persistence of paternalism and clientelism) constrained the democratic strategy choices of the civil society organizations. Just as democratization within political society is inconsistent and incomplete, so will be the demand–making strategies of the grassroots towards the state. The Dominican case is of particular interest as it illustrates the blend of personalized and institutionalized elements characteristic of democratic transition.     

当代世界宗教发展趋势及其对我国宗教的影响

当今,世界宗教的发展对我国宗教产生了种种影响.因此,准确把握世界宗教的发展趋势,正确认识由此带来的对我国宗教的影响,将有利于我们做好宗教工作,进一步维护安定团结的政治局面.     

Western Identity,Barbarians and the Inheritance of Greek Universalism1

This paper argues that a particular philosophical and historical understanding of Ancient Greek thought is used to establish a superior Western identity of universal prevalence. Starting with the terminological differences between ethnocentrism and Eurocentrism, I then reconstruct the rise of Eurocentrism by examining the changing conceptualizations of Greeks and Barbarians in Ancient texts from Homer to Aristotle. The third section explores how Western historians of philosophy and culture have used this Greek self-understanding to legitimate the view of Western cultural superiority based on universalism. Finally, I discuss several possibilities to counter this form of Eurocentric Western identity-politics.