Wasta as Social Capital and Legitimate Conservative Order

IF 2.9 1区 哲学 Q1 ETHICS Journal of Political Philosophy Pub Date : 2021-12-09 DOI:10.30570/2078-5089-2021-103-4-81-99
D. Grafov
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Abstract

The article examines the relationship between the traditional group relations (intrafamily, clan, etc.) in the Arab society, which provide access to the political rent, and the processes of socio-political modernization and the building of civil institutions. The Arab governments usually explain the inefficiency or “deviations” in the work of such institutions by national characteristics, adherence to the idea of nation-building, etc., but never by the desire to preserve power and assets of the traditional elites that are based on group loyalty. One of the most common ways of accessing power in order to acquire and redistribute tangible and intangible benefits in the Arab world is Wasta, or a system of connections, based on group loyalty and client-patronage relationships. Loyalty to one’s group that almost everyone belongs to by birth or due to certain life circumstances ensures the interests of the individual in the broadest sense. Wasta’s network and group ties, based on the principles that are at odds with those that the civil society is built upon, impede the development and modernization of social and political institutions. While researchers have studied Wasta relations as such rather structurally, both at the micro-level (from the social network point of view) and at the macro-level (from the institutional point of view), the attempts to build a holistic model that considers Wasta simultaneously from both viewpoints have not yet been crowned with success. The article proposes the conceptualization of Wasta as social capital, which makes it possible to represent this type of relationship as one actor’s “investment” and the other actor’s “loan”. One can also use this holistic model in the analysis of other informal ties inherent in other cultures but also based on group loyalty and client-patronage relationships and provide fertile soil for maintaining conservative order.
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社会资本与合法的保守秩序
本文考察了阿拉伯社会中提供政治租金的传统群体关系(家庭内部、氏族等)与社会政治现代化进程和公民制度建设之间的关系。阿拉伯政府通常用民族特点、坚持国家建设理念等来解释这些机构工作中的低效率或“偏差”,但从来没有用维护基于群体忠诚的传统精英的权力和资产的愿望来解释。在阿拉伯世界,为了获得和重新分配有形和无形的利益而获取权力的最常见方式之一是Wasta,即一种基于群体忠诚和客户-赞助关系的联系体系。对几乎每个人生来或由于某些生活环境而属于的群体的忠诚,确保了最广泛意义上的个人利益。瓦萨塔的网络和团体关系所基于的原则与公民社会赖以建立的原则不一致,阻碍了社会和政治机构的发展和现代化。虽然研究人员已经从微观层面(从社会网络的角度)和宏观层面(从制度的角度)对Wasta关系进行了结构性的研究,但试图建立一个同时从两个角度考虑Wasta的整体模型的尝试尚未取得成功。本文提出将wasa概念化为社会资本,从而可以将这种关系表示为一方的“投入”和另一方的“借贷”。人们还可以使用这个整体模型来分析其他文化中固有的其他非正式关系,但也可以基于群体忠诚和客户-赞助关系,并为维持保守秩序提供肥沃的土壤。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
4.10
自引率
5.60%
发文量
17
期刊介绍: The Journal of Political Philosophy is an international journal devoted to the study of theoretical issues arising out of moral, legal and political life. It welcomes, and hopes to foster, work cutting across a variety of disciplinary concerns, among them philosophy, sociology, history, economics and political science. The journal encourages new approaches, including (but not limited to): feminism; environmentalism; critical theory, post-modernism and analytical Marxism; social and public choice theory; law and economics, critical legal studies and critical race studies; and game theoretic, socio-biological and anthropological approaches to politics. It also welcomes work in the history of political thought which builds to a larger philosophical point and work in the philosophy of the social sciences and applied ethics with broader political implications. Featuring a distinguished editorial board from major centres of thought from around the globe, the journal draws equally upon the work of non-philosophers and philosophers and provides a forum of debate between disparate factions who usually keep to their own separate journals.
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