| |
Contributions from
the Column
Media
Africa’s youth: patience
at an end
Doha Round:
striking projection
“Human security” as leitmotiv
for foreign policy
Islamist parties:
greater integration
05/2006 |
|
Islamist parties: greater integration
Isabelle Werenfels:
Vom Umgang mit Islamisten im Maghreb.
Zwischen Einbindung und Unterdrückung [Coping with Islamists in the Maghreb. Integration and suppression].
Berlin, Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik/Deutsches Institut
für Internationale Politik und Sicherheit [German Institute
for International and Security Affairs],
December 2005, 33 pages, ISSN 1611-6372.
The participation of Islamist parties that comply with democratic standards has made the political systems in Algeria and Morocco more pluralistic, more representative and more competitive since the late 1990s. At the same time, the Islamists have become more pragmatic and shown greater willingness to compromise. These are the conclusions of Werenfels’ study of the Maghreb region.
Werenfels’ analysis puts popular Western perceptions into perspective. Her study compares the successes and failures of efforts by the ruling elites of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia to suppress or integrate Islamist groups. Two questions predominate. What impact have the strategies had on the Islamist actors and their agendas? And, what do the conclusions mean for the stabilisation and reform agenda the EU is pursuing in the Mediterranean region?
The study concludes that suppressing Islamist parties, as practised in Tunisia, blocks the path to political reform. Conversely, positive results have been achieved when moderate Islamist forces have been allowed to participate. The author reports that, in Algeria, the effect has been stabilising, whereas, in Morocco, it was at least not noticeably destabilising. It seems ironic, that Islamist demands for constitutional, electoral and economic reforms and an end to corruption closely coincide with those of the EU, while they are rejected by the ruling elites in the Magreb. The broad integration of democratically-minded Islamist parties in the political process would therefore be in Europe’s interest, Werenfels believes.
(orb)
Download from:
www.swp-berlin.org/common/get_document.php?id=1499
|
