Timur Kuran Professor of Economics and Political Science and.pdfVIP

Timur Kuran Professor of Economics and Political Science and Gorter Family Professor of Islamic Studies, Duke University 2011 Association Lecture 1086 Southern Economic Journal 2012, 78(4), 1086–1095 Association Lecture The Economic Roots of Political Underdevelopment in the Middle East: A Historical Perspective Timur Kuran* Key institutions of the pre-modern Middle Eastern economy, all grounded in Islamic law, blocked the development of democratic institutions. This talk identifies three mechanisms that played critical roles. Islam’s original tax system failed to produce lasting and credible constraints on governance. The waqfs (Islamic trusts) founded to provide social services to designated constituencies were politically powerless. Profit-making private enterprises remained small and ephemeral, hindering the formation of stable coalitions capable of bargaining with the state. The last two mechanisms jointly delayed the rise of a civil society able to provide the checks and balances essential to democratic rule. JEL Classification: O53, N95, H11, P48 1. Introduction The year 2011 will go down in history for two sets of events. One involves the financial problems of the Euro zone and the other the Arab uprisings. In several Arab countries, crowds accomplished what seemed impossible a year ago. Cumulatively, the toppled leaders Zinedine El Ben Ali, Hosni Mubarak, and Muammar Gaddafi had been in office 96 years. In several Arab countries work is underway to rewrite the constitution. What makes the Arab Spring especially newsworthy is that the 21-member Arab League has lacked a single democracy. In the Muslim-majority count