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  • 2019
  • Book

Disciples of the State?: Religion and State-Building in the Former Ottoman World

By: Kristin Fabbe
  • Format:Print
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Abstract

As the Ottoman Empire crumbled, the Middle East and Balkans became the site of contestation and cooperation between the traditional forces of religion and the emergent machine of the sovereign state. Yet such strategic interaction rarely yielded a decisive victory for either the secular state or for religion. By tracing how state-builders engaged religious institutions, elites, and attachments, this book problematizes the divergent religion-state power configurations that have developed. There are two central arguments. First, states carved out more sovereign space in places like Greece and Turkey, where religious elites were integral to early centralizing reform processes. Second, region-wide structural constraints on the types of linkages that states were able to build with religion have generated long-term repercussions. Fatefully, both state policies that seek to facilitate equality through the recognition of religious difference and state policies that seek to eradicate such difference have contributed to failures of liberal democratic consolidation.

Keywords

Ottoman Empire; Secularism; State-building; Religion; Governing Rules, Regulations, and Reforms; History; Turkey; Greece; Middle East

Citation

Fabbe, Kristin. Disciples of the State?: Religion and State-Building in the Former Ottoman World. Cambridge University Press, 2019.
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About The Author

Kristin E. Fabbe

Business, Government and the International Economy
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More from the Author
  • Between Human Dignity and Security: Identifying Citizen and Elite Preferences and Concerns over Refugee Reception By: Kristin Fabbe, Eleni Kyrkopoulou and Mara Vidali
  • When Fifth Columns Fall: Religious Groups and Loyalty-Signaling in Erdoğan's Turkey By: Kristin Fabbe and Efe Murat Balıkçıoğlu
  • State-Formation, Statist Islam, and Regime Instability: Evidence from Turkey By: Kristin Fabbe
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