1 RELIGION, POLITICS, AND DEVELOPMENT: LESSONS FROM EUROPE AND THE LANDS OF ISLAM Jean-Philippe Platteau*

Abstract: The question as to whether religion can block economic development and institutional change or is a purely endogenous factor is at the heart of an old controversy dating back to Max Weber. It assumes particular importance today because of the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and prolonged economic stagnation in the Middle East. This paper rests on a critical examination of two opposite views. On one side, lies the thesis of Bernard Lewis according to whom certain specific features of the Islamic world –the lack of separation between religion and politics–creates particular difficulties on the way to modern economic growth. And, on the other side, we find the approach of Fareed Zakaria for whom the problem of the Islamic world essentially originates in the sphere of politics. Using a comparative approach that also looks at materials drawn from the historical experiences of Western Europe and Russia, the present contribution stresses the need to adopt an intermediate approach allowing for path dependence and the specificity of the Islamic “institutional complex”. In the light of the work of Timur Kuran, it also suggests that the view according to which Islam is largely instrumentalized by the political elite is not incompatible with the reckoning of Islam as a (partly) autonomous factor influencing economic performance