Popular attitudes in support of authoritarian alternatives and weak party systems constitute important threats to democratic consolidation and the stability of new democracies. This article... Show morePopular attitudes in support of authoritarian alternatives and weak party systems constitute important threats to democratic consolidation and the stability of new democracies. This article explores popular alienation from established political actors in Tunisia. Under what conditions do citizens support alternatives to the elites in power and the institutional infrastructure of a new democracy? Drawing on an original, nationally representative survey in Tunisia administered in 2017, this article examines three categories of popular attitudes in support of political outsiders.Military interventionism appears in people’s preferences for anti-system politics—the most immediate challenge to the country’s stability and democratic transition. Anti-political establishment sentiments are shown in people’s preferences for an enhanced role of the country’s main trade union as a civil-society alternative to political party elites. Finally, outsider eclecticism is the seemingly incoherent phenomenon of concurrent support for a civil society actor and the military as an ‘authoritarian alternative.’ Anti-establishment sentiments will continue to be an important element in Tunisian post-authoritarian politics, evidenced by the rise to power of Kais Said in the 2019 presidential elections and his 2021 decision to dismiss parliament. In turn, popular support for military intervention may have implications for the country’s domestic security and peaceful transition. Show less
This study tries to answer the question of what we can learn from four works by the Egyptian polymath, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505) about the history of Islamic condemnation of logic and... Show moreThis study tries to answer the question of what we can learn from four works by the Egyptian polymath, Jalal al-Din al-Suyuti (d. 911/1505) about the history of Islamic condemnation of logic and theology, in addition to the light shed on this subject by modern scholarship. Al-Suyuti's works used in this study are (1) al-Qawl al-Mushriq (QM) (2) Jahd al-Qariha, (3) Sawn al-Mantiq (SM), and (4) his Fatwa against logic. In these works, al-Suyuti invites us to take a fresh look at the much debated issues of the origins and status of theology and logic in Islam. As a staunch defender of the prophetic sunna, he discussed these issues at several stages of his intellectual development. The result was a rich documentation of the history of the opposition to theology and logic in Islam, which deserves to be taken into account fully by modern scholars studying these issues. In his four works, al-Suyuti endeavors to persuade his readers that logic was opposed by 68 prominent scholars. An analysis of the contents of these four works indicates that hostility to logic did become a predominant feature of Sunni traditionalism, especially during the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. A prosopographical study of the opponents of logic mentioned by al-Suyuti shows that logic was condemned by distinguished Sunni scholars in Valencia, Fez, Aleppo, Iraq, and Mecca, and especially also in Egypt and Syria. Thus, the study of a newly-discovered QM manuscript and of al-Suyuti's fatwa confirms the veracity of al-Nashshar's reference, in 1947, to one of al-Suyuti's works discussed here, SM, explaining that al-Suyuti's SM constitutes the most complete encyclopaedia dealing with the (Islamic) criticism of Greek logic. Show less
