Khoo Boo Teik, Vedi Hadiz, and Yoshihiro Nakanishi,eds. Between Dissent and Power: The Transformation of Islamic Politics in the Middle East and Asia. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, xv+298p., index.

Between Dissent and Power: The Transformation of Islamic Politics in the Middle East and AsiaKHOO BOO TEIK, VEDI HADIZ, and YOSHIHIRO NAKANISHI, eds.London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014, xv+298p., index.The key intervention this timely volume makes is to question whether political agitation that speaks in the name of Islam is best understood in terms of the Islamic content its exponents profess. In this respect, the titular choice to describe the volume as being about "Islamic" politics is no coincidence. To the contrary, it splits the difference between assuming that no more than a politics of actors who happen to be "Muslim" merits attention and assuming that their politics are overdetermined by Islamist predilections/pronouncements. At the same time, as the editors' fine introductory chapter makes clear, the choice is also meant to provoke. This is because the collection prioritizes what the editors suggest are heretofore neglected political economy and institutional (political, sociological) perspectives on understanding recent events in the Muslim majority countries the volume surveys. Those countries-which include Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, Morocco, Malaysia, Pakistan, Algeria, and Indonesia-comprise the basis for the volume's nine case study chapters. The choice of case studies is governed by the volume's concern with tracing how Islamic politics has oscillated between "dissent" and "power," especially in the aftermath of the Arab spring.After making requisite mention of the fact that the volume is intended to treat the Islamic character of politics in the places it surveys neither as "an epiphenomenon of economics" nor "the mere expression of religion," in their introductory chapter the editors instead proceed to highlight a series of so-called institutional factors. These include, first, capitalist development, economic crises, and their social consequences; second, the relative strengths of regimes, parties, and social movements; and, third, the shifting bases and constituencies of support and opposition (p. 4). Before proceeding to the nine case studies, the two chapters following the editors' introduction helpfully elaborate on the key crosscutting perspectives the volume seeks to use to illuminate relevant patterns and contrasts. In Chapter 2 ("Political Economy and the Explanation of the Islamic Politics in the Contemporary World") Richard Robison contrasts cultural and ideological approaches to understanding "politics and society in Islamic countries" with several others (p. 21). Most important among these are the various strands of the political economy perspective Robison advocates. According to Robison, whether in its radicalized or party electoral form Islamic politics is thus best viewed in light of the confluence between class dynamics (e.g. by paying attention to phenomena like the "declining petty bourgeoisie") and shifting state structures (e.g. by paying attention to the move from "market authoritarian rule" to "the embrace of modern market"). Chapter 3 by Vedi Hadiz ("The Organizational Vehicles of Islamic Political Dissent: Social Bases, Genealogies and Strategies") complements Robison's chapter nicely. Not only does it bring the volume closer to the ground of how Islamic politics is actually undertaken, it also still focuses on developing a set of generalized explanatory resources to clarify the particular approach the volume as a whole means to pursue. Noting that the titular "organizational vehicles" the chapter is focused on vary greatly from full fledged political parties to small and isolated cells engaged in terrorist activity, Hadiz emphasizes that the vehicles of "Islamic dissent" must be understood in relation to "transformations in the social bases of Islamic politics" over the last half century. Hadiz contrasts the shared desire expressed by many parties for "a variant of capitalism" (p. 47) with the rise of "organizing from the fringes" when such mainstream Islamic forces "fail to build coalitions that can plausibly challenge for state power through the formal political arena" (p. …