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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
  • The Irredeemability of the Past: Determinants of Reconciliation and Revenge in Post-Conflict Settings By: Kristen Kao, Kristin Fabbe and Michael Bang Petersen
  • Surveying the Landscape of Labor Market Threat Perceptions from Migration: Evidence from Attitudes toward Sub-Saharan African Migrants in Morocco By: Matt Buehler, Kristin E. Fabbe and Eleni Kyrkopoulou
  • Royal Golden Eagle: Pursuing Cross-border Expansion with Bold Ambition By: Kristin E. Fabbe, Dante Roscini, Adina Wong and Dawn H. Lau
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