Democracy and Islamic Rules and Values

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The city has connected 18,000 households to the sewerage system,put up lights and signs on all city streets,and planted more than 4,000 trees.It has expanded a social service network,offering vocational training to more than 100 children and social assistance to more than 30,000 orphans,widows, people with disabilities,and other vulnerable groups through local NGOs. It also offers literacy and skill training to vulnerable women.The municipality receives support from the United Nations Development Programme’s LIFE (Local Initiative Facility for Urban Environment) Programme and from UNICEF.

Participatory Budgeting as an Entry Point for Better Governance Citizens’ability and willingness to engage with the state are predicated on a number offactors,including knowledge and capacity,freedom from fear of prosecution,political space for open debate on public decisions,and the ability to access a free media.Most ofthese factors are largely absent in the region.However,one ofthe hopes for participatory budgeting initiatives is that with careful design and targeted support,the initiatives would be able to start the process ofeffecting positive change in the political and governance environment,particularly by whetting citizens’appetite for contestable government and positive,empowered engagement with the state.

Even successful initiatives face a challenge overcoming the systemic barriers identified and supporting a regional shift toward better governance. Participatory processes will be able to do so only ifthe underlying social, cultural,and religious norms in the region are compatible with notions of representivity,consultation,and democracy.There should be acceptance ofthe idea that political and civil rights,including participation,are not contingent on social and cultural norms but are something that any person should be able to recognize as his or her own.Ifeither ofthese situations is the case,tailored participatory budgeting initiatives should be able to develop and grow in principle.

Democracy and Islamic Rules and Values

Are notions ofdemocracy compatible with Muslim norms?2 According to Al-Masmoudi,president ofthe Center ofthe Study ofIslam and Democracy in Washington,D.C.,the sharia is designed to protect the individual and society (Al-Masmoudi 2004).A well-established process known as ijtihad is used todeal with changing needs ofMuslim societies over time.3 For example, in2000 the Council ofMuslim Clerics in Europe and the United States

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issued a fatwa (religious ruling) permitting Muslims residing in the West to purchase homes by taking out mortgages and paying interest.This practice clearly contradicts the Koran’s prohibition on interest.Ijtihad “allowed Muslims and Muslim societies to adapt and evolve with changing circumstances and new discoveries”(Al Masmoudi 2004,p.8).Al-Masmoudi (2004), Abootalebi (2004),and others argue that current regimes and fundamentalist movements force a choice between Islam and modernity or between Islam and democracy but that no choice actually needs to be made; many principles in Islam,including freedom,equality,and justice,are compatible with the values that drive democracy.

One such value is that of al-shura,or consultation.According to AlAnsari (2004),in many modern Muslim states this principle has been reduced to a narrow,traditional notion that consultation is good for the ruler ifhe wishes to adopt it but that otherwise he is free to do as he pleases. This notion contributed to the formation in many Muslim countries of consultative councils without full legislative and supervisory authority over the head ofstate.Al Ansari argues that Qatar’s constitution and Oman’s experience point toward political developments in the Gulfcountries that are challenging the narrow interpretation.The Islamic notion ofconsultation is synonymous with democracy in many aspects,including the right of people to govern themselves and the right ofindividuals to select representatives.The only point ofdifference “lies in the extent ofsociety’s authority to legislate”(Al Ansari 2004,p.3).Democracy grants society extensive power.The Islamic understanding ofconsultation,by contrast,“confines society’s authority to legislate within the fixed teachings ofthe Qu’ran and the Sunna”(Al Ansari 2004,p.3).4

Are individual citizens in Muslim countries in the region likely to respond to the idea that as citizens they have the right to elect their representatives and hold them to account for their use ofpublic resources? The ArabHuman Development Report (UNDP 2005) asserts that the failure of democracy in several countries in the region is not cultural in origin.“It lies in the convergence ofpolitical,social and economic structures that have suppressed or eliminated organized social and political actors capable of turning the crisis ofauthoritarian and totalitarian regimes to their advantage”(UNDP 2005,p.11).Abootalebi (2004) raises similar arguments with respect to Iran,where the regime deliberately confuses the issue ofsecularization with popular sovereignty and political democracy by tagging reformists as threats to the survival ofIslamic religious values.

Two attitudinal surveys conducted in the region suggest that citizens value governance,democracy,and certain freedoms.The first,conducted in

Participatory Budgeting in the Middle East and North Africa 239

five countries in late 2003 for the Arab Human Development Report,found that freedom from foreign occupation,freedom ofthought and expression, independent media,and freedom ofmovement are critical to respondents. Some 89 percent believed that their choice ofcentral and local government leaders through free and fair elections was critical for good governance.

A second survey,the World Values Survey (conducted between 2000 and 2002),found that respondents in Arab countries topped the list ofthose agreeing that democracy is better than any other form ofgovernance.A high percentage ofrespondents also rejected authoritarian rule,defined as rule by a strong ruler who disregards parliament or elections (Pettersson 2003).

Some citizen groups advocating human rights and political freedom in the region have been successful in bringing about change.Human rights and political organizations in Morocco persuaded the government to acknowledge violations ofhuman rights and to pass a new family law that met the demands ofthe women’s movement to safeguard women’s rights. CSOs in Syria asked for the state ofemergency to be lifted and freedoms expanded.In Saudi Arabia documents and petitions on minority rights, religious freedom,civil rights,equality,and political openness were submitted to the crown prince.One petition went as far as to call for constitutional reform,including guaranteeing fundamental political freedoms and democraticreforms,including elections and popular control through representative institutions ofpublic funds (UNDP 2005).

Religious debate and political dialogue in the region are promising for improving governance and development outcomes in the long run. Abootalebi (2004) argues,however,that democratic elections in the region will not succeed without addressing the underlying problem ofuneven distribution ofsocioeconomic and political resources.Meaningfully engaging with issues ofpublic resources allocations could be valuable in initiating such a redistribution ofresources.However,countries in the region will not easily—and,as Fawaz (2002) argues,perhaps should not—adopt governance systems and mechanisms that parrot models from the secular world.

None ofthe factors identified in this chapter as critical to participatory processes—enabling political systems,including mature political parties; fundamental freedoms;civil society capacity;citizen knowledge and capacity;enabling legal frameworks;local government capacity;availability of information—is present in the Middle East and North Africa.Given the political and sociocultural environment in the region,citizen budgeting initiatives are unlikely to succeed,unless they are launched in locales where the leadership is open to citizen input or the initiative is supported by external development partner funding.