the concept of shoura (council), and the relationship between shoura and democracy, has a key role in development of religious modernist debates in muslim world. the “general theory of shoura” is one of these theories on islamic democracy that provided and developed by dr. towfiq mohammad al-shavi(birth, 1918/egypt). the three aspects of his theory are: 1) the religious basis of shoura that pro...

This paper uses a game-theoretic framework to explain how collectivist values hamper societies’ efforts to elicit cooperation in inter-group games of prisoners’ dilemma (PD) and draws on the results of the analysis to interpret the meanings of three historical institutional reform episodes. Group-oriented values, widespread throughout non-western civilizations, can contribute to social cohesion...

This article intends to clarify views regarding important challenges that have originated from the political, social, cultural and geopolitical structures in the elections systems of Persian Gulf Arab countries. Challenges that determine the compatibility levels of elections systems of these countries with the world’s democratic systems. An efficient elections system is the prerequisite for the...

Politics play a central part in determining health and development outcomes as Gorik Ooms highlights in his recent commentary. As health becomes more global and more politicized the need grows to better understand the inherently political processes at all levels of governance, such as ideological positions, ideas, value judgments, and power. I agree that global health research should strengthen...

The number of political parties and the type of electoral system may impact the level of democratic functioning within a government. Models are used to explore whether the number of political parties increases a country’s democracy score on the POLITY IV measure of democracy, and whether countries with proportional representation electoral systems have higher democracy scores than those without...

O ver the past dozen years or so democratic theorists and activists have become increasingly worried about globalization’s adverse effects on democracy. Their concerns include: (1) democratic deficits, or the lack of democratic control over existing intergovernmental and supranational governance structures such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) or the European Union (EU); (2) democratic ...

In spite of the inexorable march of democracy around the globe, just how democratic institutions affect human well-being is open to debate. The evidence that democracy promotes prosperity is neither strong nor robust. Moreover, which aspects of policy making and human well-being are promoted by democracies is still a subject of debate. Even if correlations between democracy and outcome measures...

From Partition to the present day, India has displayed an ability to sustain democratic forms of government and politics. There have been no military bids for power and even Mrs. Gandhi’s months of emergency rule, which many thought perilously close to a dictatorship, was ended by the electors’ verdict in 1977. Despite phases of acute domestic strain and communal violence, the assassination of ...