Islam Instrumentalized - Jean-Philippe Platteau

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Résumé :
This book challenges the widespread view that Islam is a reactionary religion defending tradition against modernity and individual freedom.

Biographie:
Jean-Philippe Platteau is Professor of Economics at Universit? de Namur, Belgium. He has devoted his research career to studying the role of institutions in economic development and the processes of institutional change. He is the co-author of Culture, Institutions, and Development: New Insights into an Old Debate (with Robert Peccoud, 2010), and has contributed to volume two of the Handbook of the Economics of Art and Culture (2013), as well as several articles for the Journal of Development Economics.

Sommaire:
1. Introduction; 2. Insights from early modern Europe; 3. Conflation between religion and politics: the case of Islam; 4. The dominant system of politico-religious relations in Islam: a historical perspective; 5. The rise of Islam in conditions of state crisis: the case of weak states; 6. The rise of Islam in conditions of state crisis: the case of kleptocratic despotism; 7. Islamism in historical and international perspective; 8. Revivalist movements in other religions; 9. Enlightened despotism examined; 10. Islam, politics, and the challenge of enforcement; Bibliography; Index.