Iranian Journal of Sociology

Abstract What is the relationship between religious groups and organizations and civil society in the Middle East? The article argues that religious groups and organizations have historically played an important role in the public spheres in Muslim societies. Although the emergence of modern states in the Middle East has transformed the structures and the functions of religious institutions, they remain influential actors of civil societies in most Arab countries of the Middle East. To gather the data, we employed library and documentary research methods. The article, first, would discuss the dominant theories of civil society reasoning against the possibility of the emergence of civil society in this region. Then, through the critical re-evaluation of these theories, it would argue that a comprehensive understanding of the structures of public spheres in the mentioned societies, cannot be achieved without taking into consideration their social, cultural, and political characteristics. To prove its claim, we would refer to historical experiences of religious institutions of civil societies in some Muslim countries such as Egypt, Iran, and Sudan. At the end, we would suggest four theoretical approaches which could be applied to sociological studies of civil society in Islamic countries of the Middle East.

Abstract In the Persian-speaking world, Weber is mainly known by Parsons' influential interpretation of his political sociology. Meaning that in our social science literature, Weber is described as the theorist of bureaucracy and iron cage. Weber's political sociology has received little attention comparing with charisma and its creative power. In this paper, we attempted to show how Weber interpreted people's creative power in modern politics. This interpretation opposed the importance of bureaucracy and helped emerge the quasi-charisma within a parliamentary and legal system. Focusing on the meaning of and origin of charisma, we argued that Weber's favorable modern politics was not a bureaucratic politics but a charismatic one. For this reason, we examined Weber's texts and commentaries. In the end, the impasse of Weber's conceptual system on the relation of parliament and charisma is explored.
 

Abstract Since the formation of modern states, bureaucracies have become the main instruments of governments for achieving developmental goals. The existence of an efficient bureaucracy is considered necessary for realizing these goals.  However, in the literature of sociology, especially after the classics, the state bureaucracy has been neglected and it seems there is a kind of conceptual vacuum and confusion. This paper tries to give a critical discussion of the significant theories on the state bureaucracy and examine their reductionist attitudes, then give a clear formulation of this concept, and ultimately provide a conceptual model for its empirical study. Based on this model, the quality of the state bureaucracy in each country depends on its specific structural and institutional composition. The institutional context is the main determining factor of the quality of bureaucracy. Several variables, in the context of this institutional logic, are highlighted: the arrangement of power and the characteristics of political structure, the pattern of extraction of resources and the system of economic relations, the type of relationship between government and society, and ultimately the issue of the power and function/ agency of the elites. Each of these variables and their various dimensions is described regarding some empirical cases, and their implications for state bureaucracies are introduced.

Abstract While the problem of social capital is getting more important in all social science disciplines, explaining the creation of social capital rises as an important debate. Trust is a constituting element of social capital and has great importance for its consequences. Robert Putnam, in a leading prominent book, two decades ago, explained trust as a consequence of associational life, which is now acknowledged as society-centered approach. However, institution-centered approached have tried to explain trust based on the quality of public institutions. We have applied a crossnational variable-oriented comparative research on 54 countries to evaluate the strength of these two approaches for explaining trust. Data have been extracted from well-known international databases of the World Bank, Freedom House, and World Values Survey. Our evidences and results imply that institution–centered approach is more capable of explaining trust. In conclusion, the implication of results for analyzing democracies, and two critical issues of legitimacy of democratic systems and degradation of social capital have been discussed.

Abstract Viewing the effects of globalization on democracy  is  an important aspect of human life and one of the topics of interest to political scientists . Is globalization leading to the development and strengthening of democracy or vice versa? The main question of this paper is: How is the impact of globalization on the process of democratization and democratic movements in contemporary Iran? In this study democracy in contemporary Iran as an example, we will consider to understand the impact of globalization on democracy. Our hypothesis is that: The evidence suggests positive effects of globalization, along with other factors in the democratization process, of strengthening democratic and contemporary movements. To this end, after considering the definition of globalization, its dimensions, parameters, routes, and most importantly its impact on democracy, with an emphasis on recent democratic movements in Iran, was reviewed and analyzed. The research analytical method is causal explanation.

Abstract The problem of this article is the degree of polity variability between countries. The research question is stated as follows: how can we explain the degree of polity variability between countries? Based on the theoretical framework, social capital is the necessary causal condition for democracy. The original approach of the essay is comparative analysis between countries. The technique for data collection is the analysis of existing data (the secondary). The studied population consists of countries that in 1990 and 2010 have valid data for all the related concepts.  For the arbitration of the article's assumptions the fuzzy method, and for data analysis the SPSS, Excel, and Fs / QCAf software were used. The experimental findings indicate that disregarding the Eastern Bloc countries from the analysis, social trust is often a necessary condition for democracy. Usually civic engagement and trustworthiness are necessary conditions for democracy. Also, the results indicated that authoritarian rule in a country would reduce social capital in the long-term.

Abstract The aim of this paper is to conduct a sociological analysis on the Arab approaches to the question of civil society. It is a documentary study based on the literature of civil society. The study initially seeks to present an overview of the essential issues concerning the possibility of realization of civil society in the Moslem Arab countries of the Middle East. In conducting the analysis, the paper first exposes main questions that the Western social thinkers frequently ask when the subject of civil society comes under discussion. Then, the author presents an analysis of the native Arab approaches that attempt to answer these questions as discussed by the Western social thinkers. All these approaches can be said to be striving to explain the ambiguities that have come to appear in the literature. The non-Arab perspective supposedly recognizes the civil society as a feature of the modern Western society. In this view, the realization of civil society in the Moslem Arab countries is impossible for a variety of reasons. A summary of such reasons can be summed up as:  the alleged paradoxical, or contradictory, relationship between Islam and democracy; predominance of a hierarchal social structure in the Arab world; weakness of society versus power of religion and the state; and mere survival of the absolute state in these societies. In contrast to the non-native approach, there are three other perspectives adopted toward an exposition of the Arab civil society in the Moslem Arab countries; we call these perspectives Islamic, Liberal and Socialist ones. Although none of these is in accord with the Western model of civil society in all its dimensions, yet a negation of the Western model is not attempted either. On the contrary, these perspectives, declare the necessity and possibility of an Arab civil society due to extensive social and political changes in the Moslem Arab societies, changes that have occurred in the recent decades.