Shadi Hamid - The Problem of Democracy: America, the Middle East, and the Rise and Fall of an Idea

Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the Universitys objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide. Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and certain other countries.

Published in the United States of America by Oxford University Press

198 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10016, United States of America.

Oxford University Press 2022

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, by license, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reproduction rights organization. Inquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above.

You must not circulate this work in any other form and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer.

CIP data is on file at the Library of Congress

ISBN 9780197579466

eISBN 9780197579480

DOI: 10.1093/oso/9780197579466.001.0001

I am a bit reticent to start with a clich, but this really was a labor of love. And like any labor of love, there were moments when I wasnt sure if it would survive intact. But the fact that I am writing this, I suppose, is proof that it worked out in the end, although it is up to the reader to determine whether it worked out well.

It feels like a culmination. In one way or another, this book has been in the making for the entirety of my adult life. The themes and dilemmas discussed here are ones I have been wrestling with from when I was freshman in college in the days and months after September 11and even earlier, although as a child I did not necessarily have the right words. But I had a feeling. Because my parents came from an authoritarian country, I was always attuned to the distinctiveness of democracy. I could not take it for granted. And I have tried my best not to take it for granted here. This book is my best attempt to marshal the various strands of my work from the past ten years and beyond into something suitably ambitious. I am not interested in tinkering around the margins, at least not anymore.

As is often the case, the book started one way and ended in another. That is part of what makes a project like this one exciting but also disorienting. One of the most thrilling things as a writer is to start a book not knowing how it will conclude. Until the very last moment, I did not know.

Considering the task at hand, I am more grateful than ever to those who encouraged me, believed in me, and helped make this book what it is. The Brookings Institution provided the ideal environment in which to read, research, to question myself, and to think about what I really wanted to do with this project. I am blessed to be part of an institution like Brookings that puts such a premium on ideas and letting them guide us, rather than the other way around. I am grateful to Suzanne Maloney, Michael OHanlon, and Natan Sachs for nurturing an environment that privileges long-form writing and serious, in-depth research. Each of them reviewed the full manuscript and generously offered extremely helpful suggestions for how to improve the book. With their characteristically thoughtful and sharp comments as a guide, the book became what I hoped it could be, and this, in turn, allowed me to let go in the end. It took some time, but I found a way to say what I wanted to say.

I am grateful to my research assistants who worked on the book over the course of these last couple years. In the beginning, and even before the beginning, Eliora Katz read early versions of the proposal and helped me refine the books core arguments. As I dove into the writing, Israa Saber was a lifeline, and I am grateful for her guidanceand her ability to track anything and everything down in short order. Kevin Huggard reviewed the full manuscript and helped me reach the proverbial finish line, a line that I sometimes doubted I would reach.

I was blessed to be part of an intellectual community of friends and skeptics who constantly challenged me around core questions of democracy, pluralism, and American foreign policy. Some of these dear friends and sparring partners include Damir Marusic, Samuel Kimbriel, Christine Emba, Benjamin Haddad, Rachel Rizzo, Ani Chkhikvadze, Hannah Thoburn, Jamie Kirchick, John Hudson, Josh Glancy, Osita Nwavenu, Zack Beauchamp, and Ian Tuttle. Some of these unwieldly and fascinating debates took place within the Aspen Institutes Philosophy and Society salons in Washington, DC, a successful case of a book club becoming something more than a book club.

On all matters Middle East, Islamism, and democracy promotion, I am indebted to a group of brilliant scholars, teachers, and friends who influenced my research and writing in an endless number of ways. They include Peter Mandaville, John Voll, Michael Willis, Laurence Whitehead, Michael McFaul, Larry Diamond, Ovamir Anjum, Mustafa Akyol, Tarek Masoud, Nathan Brown, John Esposito, Michael Cook, Michelle Dunne, Tamara Wittes, Ken Pollack, Steven Brooke, Courtney Freer, Rashid Dar, Andrew March, Emad Shahin, Usaama al-Azami, Seth Anziska, Thomas Carothers, and Eugene Rogan.

And then, of course, there are so many people in Egypt, Jordan, Tunisia, and Turkey who were unfailingly generous with their time and attention that I cannot begin to list them all. Without them, this project simply would not have been possible. Tragically, many of my Egyptian interviewees are now either dead, in prison, or in exile. I pray and hope that they are not forgotten.

Many thanks are owed to Damir Marusic, Samuel Kimbriel, as well as David de Bruijn for kindly reviewing parts of the manuscript and offering extremely thoughtful comments. I am indebted to their wisdom and their willingness to push me on the theory of democratic minimalism that I outline in workshop organized by the University of Pittsburghs Center for Governance and Markets and George Masons Institute for Humane Studies in May 2021. A hearty thanks to co-directors Jennifer Murtazashvili and Paul Dragos Aligica for their encouragement and inspiration.

I am especially grateful to Damir for being my co-conspirator in founding Wisdom of Crowds, a podcast, newsletter, and debate platform focused on interrogating first principlesthose deep assumptions that shape our most foundational beliefs and commitments. Week in and week out, Damir and I discussed, debated, and disagreed. It is through these conversations, unspooling over the course of years, that some of my more unorthodox ideas around the democratic idea coalesced into something (I hope) vaguely coherent.

On matters of religion and learning to live with deep difference, my friend and collaborator, the Evangelical theologian Matthew Kaemingk, was a constant source of inspiration. He introduced me to the work of a somewhat obscure Dutch pastor named Abraham Kuyper, whose insights on Christian pluralism informed on the problem of Islam.

Every writer needs a place to write regularly. Without this, either our ideas atrophy or we lose our ability to effectively translate thoughts into words. With this in mind, I want to thank Jeffrey Goldberg, Yoni Appelbaum, and Dante Ramos for giving me a home in The Atlantic to grow and extend myself as a writer. Many of the ideas in this book were developed and refined in the process of writing and researching various pieces for the magazine.