The Weaver Reads reviewed Political Elites and Political Development in the Middle East by Frank Tachau (States and societies of the Third World)
Political Elites and Political Development in the Middle East
3 stars
This work is a bit dated--it was published in 1974 and the situation in all of the countries covered here has changed significantly. The chapters themselves are inconsistent.
The chapters on Algeria and Israel were particularly hard to read, and overall uninteresting.
However, I found the chapters on Turkey and Iran to be really illuminating--they filled in gaps I had, especially on the Inönü years and the age of the Shah. I had no idea how poor Iran was under the Shah--I knew he ruled with an iron fist and was framed as the "sun," but I thought the country was much wealthier than it actually was. The Turkey chapter helped me make sense of the transition from CHP's hegemony in the 1920s-40s to the fragmentation of the system under the Democrat Party. Especially interesting is the way that Ottoman and post-Ottoman officials and soldiers were effectively the elite in …
This work is a bit dated--it was published in 1974 and the situation in all of the countries covered here has changed significantly. The chapters themselves are inconsistent.
The chapters on Algeria and Israel were particularly hard to read, and overall uninteresting.
However, I found the chapters on Turkey and Iran to be really illuminating--they filled in gaps I had, especially on the Inönü years and the age of the Shah. I had no idea how poor Iran was under the Shah--I knew he ruled with an iron fist and was framed as the "sun," but I thought the country was much wealthier than it actually was. The Turkey chapter helped me make sense of the transition from CHP's hegemony in the 1920s-40s to the fragmentation of the system under the Democrat Party. Especially interesting is the way that Ottoman and post-Ottoman officials and soldiers were effectively the elite in the early Republican years, but their dominance gave way over questions over land reform. The DP attempted to consolidate power, which is why Turkey ran into its military coups in the 1960s and 70s. Today, it's more or less run by neoliberals--soldiers and officials have lost all the ground they once had.
The chapters on Saudi Arabia--with a focus on oil and the way it has reshaped the country--and Syria were fascinating too. I have much less to say about them, but I didn't realize how personal the kingdom was in the 1960s and 70s. Average citizens, in large part due to familial relationships via the tribes, continued to expect personal audiences. Syria's elites were wholly regional, and national politics were a way of sorting out regional grievances. I do wonder how the Ba'athists affected this in the 70s and 80s.
The remaining chapter, on Iraq, was also very good. It emphasizes the importance of land ownership and the centralization of property, which gave way to the professionalization of the elite via education and other aspects of mobility, if I remember right.
I'm not sure about the conclusions of the book, which discusses the relationship between modernization and changing elites. It felt like another weaker aspect of the book.
In short, this book is a bit niche, and just about all of the information is out-of-date. Even so, it is interesting to read it in order to see how things were developing in the decades before the 1970s.