Publication

This paper examines assumptions about the risks of democratization in authoritarian countries of the Muslim world where strong Islamist movements or parties exist. The authors argue that while the risks of democratization in these contexts should not be underestimated and the democratic commitment of Islamists should not be taken at face value, the costs and pitfalls of the status quo in many of these countries are also increasing. To that end the paper compares three cases of Islamist movements in three progressively more democratic contexts: the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt, the Partai Keadilan Sejahtera (the Prosperous Justice Party or the PKS) in Indonesia, and the Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (the Justice and Development Party or the AKP) in Turkey.