Contested sovereignties : government and democracy in Middle Eastern and European perspectives : papers presented at a conference organized by the Swedish Research Institute in Istanbul 28-31 Maiy 2009 / edited by Elisabeth Özdalga, Sune Persson.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

"Taking the political crisis over the presidential election in Turkey in 2007 as its starting point, the book provides in depth analysis of how these events illustrated the ways in which the constitution and its supporting institutions could be mobilized for narrow and highly controversial political purposes. Questions of state sovereignty are then explored in the cases of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, Palestine and Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt and Morocco, contrasting them with European examples such as Sweden's constitutional arrangement in relation to its monarchy, and the European Union's current constitutional transformation."--Publisher.