Overstating The Arab States Politics And Society In The Middle East Nazih N Ayubi by Nazih N Ayubi 9780755612376, 075561237X instant download after payment.

Why is it that even though they all call themselves Arab, there are actually twenty disparate Arab “states”? Why have these “states” engaged in numerous attempts at political unification, each of which has ended in failure? Although the rhetoric of politics in most countries is based on broad, universalist ideas such as nationalism or socialism, why have actual “ruling castes” been so narrowly based and non-representative? These are some of the questions that inform this comparative study of politics and the role of the state in Arab world, and make this a key textbook for students of Middle East politics, political theory and political economy. Nazih Ayubi’s main objective in this book is to place the Arab world within a theoretical and comparative framework that avoids both “orientalist” and “fundamentalist” insistence on the utter peculiarity and uniqueness of the region. Focusing in detail on eight countries, while referring to key aspects of several others, Ayubi deals with issues relating to the emergence of social classes, corporatism, economic liberalization and the relationship between state and civil society. This book is a major contribution to our understanding of the role of the state in the modern world.