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Sectarianism from Popular Participation in the Public Sphere to a Barrier to Participation

This chapter discusses the transformation of sectarianism from a channel for public participation in the political sphere into an obstacle to this participation. Identity politics, which includes sectarianism, means popular participation in service of political interests presented as the interests (in our case) of the ta’ifa. And although this sectarianism politicizes the masses and drives them into the public sphere, it nonetheless quickly becomes an obstacle to popular participation, and specifically to democratic transformation. It is no coincidence that there are no federations or confederations of ta’ifas. A federation in a modern state is either merely administrative or based on ethnic and cultural units. But collective rights are possible in a liberal democracy, assuming that they are based on citizens’ rights.