Research Program

The focus of the research program at Muwatin lies within the core theme of “Transitions to Democracy”.  

This program has been developed with a view to building a knowledge base around the issues, processes, and institutional structures that are emerging within the Palestinian polity, and to determine the agents and policies needed for a successful transitional program towards democratization in Palestine as well as the region at large.

The program views that democratization is a long term process, which in the specific Palestinian situation is immensely complicated because of overlapping and often contradictory processes.  At the macro level the issue of democratization of the Palestinian political system has been caught between the imperatives of state building on the one hand and the need to complete the process of national emancipation from Israeli occupation and dominance, while at the same time being subject to that very domination.

The research agenda focuses on providing an integrated approach to the study of the different and often paradoxical processes of state formation in Palestine. The context of containment and occupation is important if one wants to map the prospects of the emergence of a developmental state in Palestine. In the strategic studies series the crucial institutional, political and social arrangements needed for development to take place will be mapped. A related issue which has to be examined is whether the two state 'resolution' of the conflict, which has long been the cornerstone of the Palestinian National Movement's program, can still be sustained within the current context of containment and cantonization.  In light of this the future of the PA and the strategic options available to it need to be examined within an expanded political field which now includes Islamists groups as the locus of a rival political authority.  Such an examination would need to be deepened by a sustained look at the shifting political and social map of Palestinian society, the socio-economic and political grounds for the emergence of political Islam, and the social and political role that the Islamists will play in the transformation of the political field, as well as within the public sphere regarding the key issues of democratization and secularism.

Due to shifts within the political system outlined above, and building on prior research competence, Muwatin will initiate a major new research program commencing in 2006 on the issue of Political Islam and Democracy.

 A.     Political Islam and Democracy Program. 

The crisis of the political process blocked by the non-materialization of a peace settlement necessitates an examination both of macro processes at work as well as political processes at the grassroots level.  The Palestinian political sphere is undergoing massive changes, of which the most salient features are the fragmentation of Fatah and the emergence of Hamas with equal political weight.  Various opinion polls indicate that support for the Islamist bloc is on par and sometimes surpasses the support for the secular national bloc.  This phenomenon of the growth of political Islamism is not confined only to Palestine but can be seen all throughout the Arab region. 

The key terms of the debate for the next period are democracy, secularism and Islamism.  Can the Islamists play a positive role in the processes of democratization?  Can a Palestinian public sphere in which these different forces engage in debate over the form and content of a future Palestinian polity be constructed and vitalized?  Although secular national forces in Arab countries are constrained by the boundaries of the regional state we notice that an intra-Arab Islamic public sphere already exists. 

There are growing trends within some political Islamist movements that assert the compatibility of democracy and Islam, a move that presents an engagement with secular forces on ‘secular grounds’ and can thus act as a force for the democratization of the political system.  This presents an opportunity, as well as a need for the secular democratic forces to engage in conversation and discussion with the Islamists in order to agree on some of the parameters of a democratic transformation such as the boundaries of citizenship and equality. Such conversations are already taking place in other regions of the Arab world. 

 The inter-action between religion and politics, and the possibilities of debate between these respective forces will thus be a prime focus of research in this phase. The aims of this program is to examine and probe the potential as well as limits of democratization that Political Islamist movements can negotiate, to accumulate a body of expert knowledge around that the subject, and to initiate a conversation between secular democratic forces and Islamists around their respective understanding of two key issues: that of the boundaries of citizenship and the issue of civil liberties.

Research projects within this program to be commenced in the research period 2006-2008:

1. Islam and Democracy 

The purpose of this research project is to analytically map how democracy is understood by the different currents within Islamic political thought. The starting point of this project is that Islam is neither monolithic nor homogenous.  Likewise, Islamist political movements are neither monolithic nor homogenous, and range from those who reject democracy outright as a western import, and others with varying degrees of accommodation with democratic thought.  The researcher posits that in order to understand the potential for accommodation between Islam as faith and democracy as political system within these different currents,  there is a need to deploy a distinction between the concept of text (in this case the holy text) and that of reason.  Here the concept of reason points to the necessary and crucial work of interpretation for understanding “the text”.  The researcher will work within this conceptual triad of democracy, text and reason, to elucidate the different forms of accommodation that have been posed between democracy and Islam, as well perhaps to pose others as yet un-thought.

2.  Islamic Feminism project:

Although secular national forces in Arab countries are constrained by the boundaries of the regional state we notice that an intra-Arab Islamic public sphere already exists where vital debates take place.  Some of the more interesting debates center on the emergence of strong movements of both Muslim and Islamist feminists.  There is already a substantial body of work produced by, and on, Islamists feminists in Morocco, Iran, Egypt and Lebanon, which suggests that some common ground and strategies can be shared by both secular and Muslim feminists. Muwatin proposes to publish a critical volume presenting this debate, and mapping the challenge presented there not only to secular feminism but also to traditional and religious understandings of the position and role of women in the public sphere.

3. Secularism, democracy and religion

The debate on the issue of secularization remains one of the thorniest issues in the exchange between secularists and Islamists, and probably the least understood.  It can be argued that secularism is a practice of politics, and that within Islam specifically the political sphere is traditionally basically secular. With the resurgence of politicized religion throughout the world the debate on secularization and the secular have been reinvigorated.  Many extremely interesting critiques of the notion of secularism have emerged among Indian scholars like Partha Chattergee and Ashis Nandy, and the introduction of such critiques could be a starting point for reopening the discussion in this region in an attempt to reformulate the notion of the secular in a non- exclusionary manner. Can an agreement on the secular basis of politics be reached?

4. Women Islamic revivalists/preachers in Palestine:  This research will be a field based ethnographic work on a rarely noted but emergent phenomenon in Palestine (as well as the Arab region) that of Islamist women revivalist preachers, who are not necessarily, aligned with political Islamists groups.  This study will endeavour to map the emergence of these revivalists, their social and political genealogies as well as the scope of their activities and the depth of their impact.

 B.      Strategic Studies: 

This is meant as a series of strategic studies on key elements within the Palestinian political system and the possible future scenarios that may unfold in the coming period. Given the near collapse of the peace process, vital issues such as the ability of the PA to govern, the possibilities of long term developmental strategies that can ensure the survival of Palestinian society, and the catastrophic economic and social situation that is emerging as well as its impact on future political developments need to be studied. 

1. Project title: Reforming Institutions and Policies for Development with Equity in Palestine

The aim of this research project is to identify the institutional and economic reform priorities for achieving development with equity in the West Bank-Gaza under emerging Israeli strategies of disengagement from the Palestinians. First, the post-Oslo Israeli strategy of unilateral disengagement is based on Israeli strategic calculations that are not properly understood. Possible Israeli strategic goals will be identified and tested against Israeli actions to achieve a better understanding of Israel’s underlying strategic goals. Second, Palestinian institutional and economic reform priorities for achieving even limited political stability and economic development have to be judged in the context of these Israeli strategies. If the containment of Palestinian territories is a long term Israeli strategy, the implications are very different than if the containment is a temporary security measure. The matching of Palestinian reform priorities to Israeli strategic goals is critical to improve the impact of policy. Third, the research will look at how Palestinian institutional and policy responses are also being conditioned by changes in political organization within the Palestinian territories. In the post-Arafat transition there have been significant realignments of political forces, with a strengthening of the legislature vis-à-vis the executive and the entry of Islamist parties into the mainstream. These developments set new constraints and opportunities for the development strategies that can now be followed. The three elements of the research project will provide a richer and more realistic analysis of the institutional and policy challenges facing different parts of Palestinian society in contemporary Palestine.  

C.    Issues in Democratic Theory and Transitions

1. Within many circles, not all avowedly Islamist, democracy as part of secularization is seen as a western import.  This misconception has been reinforced by western discourses on the need for democratization within the Arab and Islamic world which have accompanied the war in Iraq and the post 9/11 scene.  The misconception on both sides rests in the non-recognition and knowledge of the history of democratic struggle in the West in the 19^th century.  Democratic rights were not bestowed but won in a bitter and protracted struggle by working men and women, not only in Europe but also as part of the national struggles against colonialism.  A research project to trace the history of this struggle will be undertaken at Muwatin. 

2. Research Grants competition: Muwatin has already achieved a significant profile in its work on issues concerning democratic transitions and the social and political actors most likely to play a role in effecting such a transition. Muwatin will build on this expertise by doing further research on key constituents of political and civil society such as political parties, trade unions, studies on reform of the media and the expansion of the public sphere, as well as comparative research on legislations that can ensure a democratic and transparent political system. To this end Muwatin will maintain its research grant competition to encourage the emergence of new and innovative research.

Achievements expected: 1. The research projects will help build knowledge of different trends within political Islam, as well as analyze and evaluate strategic options and developments within the Palestinian polity, and the prospects for democratization, in the hope of building a substantial body of knowledge around these issues.  2. Invigorate and enrich debate within public sphere around these issues 3. Provide knowledge resources for different constituencies (political actor, students and general public. 5. Publication of research in book form. 6. Contribution to the Arab library.

Assessment: 1. Book distribution. 2. Adoption of Muwatin books for university curricula. 3. Book reviews in the media. 4. Informal feedback from Muwatin's constituency.