Islamists and the state : legitimacy and institutions in Yemen and Lebanon / Stacey Philbrick Yadav.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Introduction: Islamists, opposition, and inclusion. -- Part 1: The Yemeni congregation for reform. The road to opposition: From Nizam al-Fatwa to the joint meeting parties ; The procedural reform agenda: Structural limits of the JMP. -- Part 2: The party of God. The road to the cabinet: redefining friendship and enmity ; Hizballah in government (and back...and forth). -- Part 3: Islamist discourse and markets of meaning. Harnessing Takfir in Yemen: Allegations of apostasy and symbolic power ; Policing the nation: Hizballah and the discourse of Takhwin ; Conclusion :Whither moderation?

"In the wake of the 'Arab spring' of 2011, the role of Islamist parties in the Middle East has taken on a new importance and significance. But in contrast with the commonly-held belief in the West that Islamist groups are often aimed at challenging not only the incumbent regimes, but also the authority of the state itself, both Islah of Yemen and Hezbollah of Lebanon are legal political organizations, with aspirations to work within state structures. Here, Stacey Philbrick Yadav assesses the idea that inclusion in formal state institutions generates a moderation of Islamist aims. She therefore highlights how Islamist commitments to the authority and institutions of the state can be made through appeals to sources of legitimacy at both the local and transnational level. This book will thus appeal to both researchers of Islamism in the Middle East as well as those studying the political situation in Yemen and Lebanon. Islamists, long assumed to be the primary drivers of opposition politics, have been central to political uprisings, but not always in the ways that observers might have anticipated, nor with the kind of uncontested dominance aimed at or capable of upending entrenched regimes. Islamist participation instead can strengthen state institutions, even as they are critiquing the existing regimes. Version of democracy being enacted at once committed to the stat and grounded in sites of authority toher that state or nation - whether subnational or transnational or both."--Publisher's website.