Liberal Democracy and Political Islam: The Search for Common Ground

Abstract

We seek to establish a dialogue between Islamic and democratic normative political theories. To that aim, we show that the conception of democracy underlying a prominent Islamic political model is procedural. We distinguish proceduralism from a liberal conception of democracy. We explain how bringing together Islamic political theory and democracy alters the meaning of the latter. In other words, we show that democracy within Islam often means democracy within Islamic limits.

Keywords: Islam, democracy, liberalism, constitutionalism, secularism