Religious Parties and Religious Organizations: The Fruits of Partnership

Abstract

This chapter discusses the strategic challenges that religious parties face as they look to survive and succeed politically in Muslim-majority countries. It identifies national, private, da ‘wa organizations and Sufi orders as the religious lobbies of interest in these countries. It discusses the institutional interests and policy preferences of these religious lobbies and how they strategize to achieve them. It introduces the concept of socioeconomic institutionalization of religious organizations, discusses why these organizations want to increase it, and how higher socioeconomic institutionalization translates into increased capacity and effectiveness in lobbying for religious organizations. Finally, it argues that given their mutual ideological and policy interests, religious parties and religious organizations are natural partners in politics. It also discusses why secular parties and nonreligious organizations are unreliable partners for religious organizations and religious parties respectively.