RELIGION AND GOVERNANCE IN A GLOBALIZING WORLD: A Comparative Study of Muslim Countries

Abstract

The relationship between politics and religion in Muslim countries has become a much debated and discussed issue among scholars of Islam and Muslim societies. A commonly stated view of many Western and Muslim scholars and activists is that Islam is not only a religion but also a blueprint for social order, and therefore encompasses all domains of life, including law and the state. It is then argued that this striking characteristic is what sets Muslim societies apart from Western counterparts that are based upon the separation of state and religion. After examining these and related issues, the paper reports empirical evidence, which shows that institutional configurations form an important factor in mediating and articulating the nature of the relationship between religion and politics in Muslim countries. Two types of configurations—undifferentiated and differentiated—are identified. Undifferentiated institutional configurations refer to social formations in which religion and the state are integrated. In contemporary discourse, such a formation is labeled as an Islamic state. In contrast, differentiated institutional configurations refer to social formations in which religion and politics—by constitutional requirement or by tradition—occupy separate spaces. The empirical evidence discussed in the paper indicates that, in general, the trust placed in religious institutions and consequently their public influence are greater in Muslim countries with differentiated institutional configurations than in those with undifferentiated ones. In general, trust in religious institutions is directly related to trust in political institutions. The paper offers some theoretical underpinnings for this and other findings, and argues that undifferentiated Muslim societies tend to take on the characteristics of differentiated societies over time. An Islamic state, therefore, might also provide a route to the social and political development of a Muslim society in which religion and politics coexist in an autonomous but mutually cooperative relationship.