Prof. Ahmet T. Kuru talks about "Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment”

Prof. Ahmet T. Kuru presents his book "Islam, Authoritarianism, and Underdevelopment” (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Why do Muslim-majority countries have high levels of authoritarianism and low levels of socio-economic development in comparison to world averages? Prof. Kuru elaborates an argument about the ulema-state alliance as the cause of these problems in the Muslim world from the eleventh century to the present. Criticizing essentialist, post-colonialist, and new institutionalist alternative explanations, Kuru focuses on the relations between intellectual, economic, religious, and political classes in his own explanation.
Ahmet T. Kuru is Porteous Professor of Political Science at San Diego State University.
This webinar is jointly organized by the Institute for Minority Rights of Eurac Research and the Institute of Public Law and Political Science at Graz University