By Esraa Ahmed, a 2020-21 FLAS fellow and a senior majoring in Global Studies
In honor of Professor Avital Livny’s publication of her first book titled Trust and the Islamic Advantage: Religious-Based Movements in Turkey and the Muslim World, the European Union Center held a Brown Bag Lecture on October 2, in which she summarized the contents of her book. Dr. Avital Livny is an assistant professor in the Political Science department and has written several publications on topics of ethnicity and political movements in the Middle East. This post will serve as a short synopsis of the talk I attended. You can access the full recorded lecture here.
Dr. Livny expressed that this book began with a conundrum. Since the 1980s there has been a consistent increase for support of Islamic parties in Turkey, and at the same time, there is a general understanding that Turkey is a secular(ist) state. She refers to research pointing to religious resurgency, but finds that the indicator was unexpected — religiosity has actually decreased since the 1980s. Dr. Livny looks closer into her question and divides it into two main categories: the participation gap and another category, one that she calls the Islamic advantage.
The participation gap is based on a finding that people in Muslim-majority countries are less likely to join and participate in general politics, adding another element which is that more secular support has been going to Islamic political organizations.
The Islamic advantage is a term denoting the idea that Islamic organizations and political parties have had more success and support than secular organizations in recent decades due to their clear and targeted goals or slogans. Based on the various existing theories that Dr. Livny examined explaining the concept of the Islamic advantage, she found that they only partially explained the scenario and were too individualized.
A new trust-based theory was possibly the most comprehensive approach. Dr. Livny explains the trust theory as one that features some psychological reasoning and stresses that political engagement and participation is contingent on this aspect. “Individual decisions to participate in group activities are inherently interdependent,” says Dr. Livny.
Fewer than 10% of Turkish respondents in a survey stated that most people can be trusted. This statistic proves the impact that lack of trust can have on political participation. Honesty and trust in the topic of the Islamic advantage manifests itself through shared identity and thus beliefs and practices. The success of Islamic organizations and parties in more recent decades were mainly due to a rise of trust and therefore participation and engagement, as Dr. Livny concludes. The presence of trust and honesty that participants feel towards Muslim organizations and spaces is most probably the cause to the surge of support towards organizations and political parties with a focus on Islamic principles.
The Islamic advantage is a term denoting the idea that Islamic organizations and political parties have had more success and support than secular organizations in recent decades due to their clear and targeted goals or slogans. Based on the various existing theories that Dr. Livny examined explaining the concept of the Islamic advantage, she found that they only partially explained the scenario and were too individualized.
A new trust-based theory was possibly the most comprehensive approach. Dr. Livny explains the trust theory as one that features some psychological reasoning and stresses that political engagement and participation is contingent on this aspect. “Individual decisions to participate in group activities are inherently interdependent,” says Dr. Livny.
Fewer than 10% of Turkish respondents in a survey stated that most people can be trusted. This statistic proves the impact that lack of trust can have on political participation. Honesty and trust in the topic of the Islamic advantage manifests itself through shared identity and thus beliefs and practices. The success of Islamic organizations and parties in more recent decades were mainly due to a rise of trust and therefore participation and engagement, as Dr. Livny concludes. The presence of trust and honesty that participants feel towards Muslim organizations and spaces is most probably the cause to the surge of support towards organizations and political parties with a focus on Islamic principles.
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