Promotional Information

Offers important theoretical insights into how democracy is understood in the Middle East

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments Preface: "Where Is My Vote?" Introduction: Democracy and Culture 1 The Origins of Secularism in Europe 2 Modern Visions of Secularism 3 A Critical Understanding of Modernity 4 Intellectuals and Democracy 5 Religious Intellectuals 6 Alireza Alavi-Tabar and Political Change 7 The Predicaments of Iranian Public Intellectuals 8 An Intellectual Crisis in Iran Conclusion: Modernity and Its Traditions Notes Index About the Author

About the Author

Ali Mirsepassi is Professor of Middle Eastern Studies and Sociology at New York University and author of Intellectual Discourses and Politics of Modernization: Negotiating Modernity in Iran.

Reviews

"Much more than simply a commentary on Iranian politics. In essence, it is a work of comparative political theory that examines the relationship between culture and democracy." Democracy: A Journal of Ideas "This is an important book, moving beyond describing and categorizing Iranian intellectual trajectories over the modern era and towards a judicious intervention in that debate itself... One cannot but applaud the effort to instill a 'practice what you preach' ethic into the Iranian intellectual zeitgeist." Middle East Journal "The author convincingly argues for a view of democracy based not on 'objective logic,' but rather on pragmatic lines...[Mirsepassi] does deliver a variety of useful perspectives on the nature of the contemporary hostility." PBS's Frontline Website