5 - The Autocratic Legacy of Muslim Conquest

Summary

This chapter documents the effect of Muslim military conquest on democratic governance after the initial expansion of Islam (from 632 to 1100). Whereas the previous two chapters established how Muslim conquest helped generate an equilibrium of centralized autocracy in conquered territories, this chapter traces the institutional legacy of the Islamic equilibrium through to the present. The statistical analysis in this chapter demonstrates how Muslim conquest slowed the adoption of representative assemblies in medieval Spain and then examines how territories conquered by Muslim armies tend to less democratic today. The latter analysis is careful to evaluate how Muslim conquest affected European colonialism. Finally, the chapter uses survey responses to show that Islamic culture does not explain the lack of democracy in many contemporary Muslim societies.