Search results for ""author pauline jones""

With the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, former Communist Party leaders in Central Asia were faced with the daunting task of building states where they previously had not existed: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Their task was complicated by the institutional and ideological legacy of the Soviet system as well as by a more actively engaged international community. These nascent states inherited a set of institutions that included bloated bureaucracies, centralized economic planning, and patronage networks. Some of these institutions survived, others have mutated, and new institutions have been created. Experts on Central Asia here examine the emerging relationship between state actors and social forces in the region. Through the prism of local institutions, the authors reassess both our understanding of Central Asia and of the state-building process more broadly. They scrutinize a wide array of institutional actors, ranging from regional governments and neighborhood committees to transnational and non-governmental organizations. With original empirical research and theoretical insight, the volume's contributors illuminate an obscure but resource-rich and strategically significant region.

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Muslim societies are largely absent from the study of religion and politics in the social sciences, despite the fact that scholarly literature often presumes that religion exercises a colossal influence on social, political, and economic outcomes in predominantly Muslim countries. This volume utilizes real world events and newly available data to more fully integrate the study of politics in Muslim societies into mainstream comparative analytical frameworks. Moreover, it explores the extent to which theories about core topics of inquiry in political science apply to Muslim societies. The aim is to interrogate rather than presume both whether and how Islam and Muslims are distinct from other religions and religious communities. Through 40 chapters by leading specialists, the Oxford Handbook of Politics in Muslim Societies examines a wide range of topics concerning regimes and regime change, electoral politics, political attitudes and behavior beyond voting, social mobilization, economic performance and development outcomes, and social welfare and governance. The Handbook shifts focus away from the Arab world as the barometer of politics in the Muslim world, recognizing that the Islamic world spans several regions including Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Central Asia. This expanded geography enables a thorough investigation of which relationships, if any, hold across Muslim majority states in different regions of the world.

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