Destructive Coordination, Anfal and Islamic Political Capitalism

Mehrdad Vahabi is Professor of Economics at University Sorbonne Paris Nord and director of the research center on Economics at North Paris (CEPN) affiliated to the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS). He has published many books in English, French and Persian among them The Political Economy of Destructive Power (Edward Elgar, 2004), The Political Economy of Predation (Cambridge University Press, 2015). He has published more than a hundred articles in peer journals and is an editor of Public Choice.

“The empirical evidence supplied by the study of economic, ecological, and social evolution of the Islamic Republic, as an attempt at creating a third road model for an oil-rich emerging economy is close to half a century old, and thus is worth studying in terms of customary development studies. … A welcome addition to any serious academic library!” (László Csaba, The Independent Review, Vol. 28 (3), 2023-2024)“The book is exceptionally rich in its conceptual arguments and empirical detail. ... This is an exceptional contribution to economic analysis of Islam, with interdisciplinary appeal to economics, political science, Islamic studies, law, and history. It is an exceptional work of political economy and comparative institutional analysis. ... This book is an excellent example why public choice is a progressive research agenda.” (Ilia Murtazashvili, Public Choice, Vol. 196 (1-2), 2023)

• 1 Introduction.- 1.1 Problem Statement.- 1.2 Primacy of Institutions or Economy: Distribution or Production?.- 1.3 Bringing More Diversity to ‘Diversity of Capitalisms’.- 1.4 Anfal and Economic Reductionism.- 1.5 Critical Order: Destructive Coordination.- 1.6 Research Method.- 1.7 Background of the Present Book.- References.- 2 Economic Systems, Modes of Production, and Coordination.- 2.1 Introduction.- 2.2 Endogenous Explanations of Social Order and Crisis.- 2.3 Two Levels of Defining Economic Systems.- 2.4 Market Coordination.- 2.5 Authoritative Coordination.- 2.6 Cooperative Coordination.- 2.7 Destructive Coordination.- 2.8 Political Economy of Coordination.- 2.9 Complementarity and Articulation Problem.- 2.10 Other Related Classifications.- 2.11 Conclusion.- References.- 3 Conceptualizing Destructive Coordination.- 3.1 Introduction.- 3.2 Theoretical Background.- 3.3 Destructive Coordination in a One-Shot Game: Traffic Circles.- 3.4 Destructive Coordination in a Repeated Game: Prison.- 3.5 Destructive Coordination and Predatory Appropriation.- 3.6 Biopiracy: Res Nullius and Privatization.- 3.7 Destructive Coordination and Disarticulation Problem.- 3.8 Conclusion.- References.- 4 Political Capitalism, its Varieties, and Islam.- 4.1 Introduction.- 4.2 The Term Capitalism and Diversity of Capitalisms.- 4.3 Weber: Market Versus Political Capitalism.- 4.4 Political Capitalism and Crony Capitalism.- 4.5 General Characteristics of Political Capitalism.- 4.6 Market Capitalism and Great Demarcation.- 4.7 Varieties of Political Capitalism: The North American Case.- 4.8 Varieties of Political Capitalism: The Chinese Case.- 4.9 Varieties of Political Capitalism: The Natural Resource Curse.- 4.10 Islam and Capitalism.- 4.11 Conclusion.- References.- 5 Anfal and Islamic Economics.- 5.1 Introduction.- 5.2 Anfal in Koran and the Battle of Badr.- 5.3 Contradictory Verses on Anfal.- 5.4 Anfal and the Prophet’s Practices.- Lands and Properties of Banu al-Nadir.- Fadak.- 5.5 The Place of Anfal in the Islamic Public Finance.- 5.6 Examples and Definition of Anfal in the Shi’i Islam.- 5.7 Anfal and the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran.- Anfal and Article 45.- Anfal and Article 44.- 5.8 Anfal: The Missing Point in the Economic Literature.- 5.9 Shi’i Islam and Islamic Political Capitalism.- 5.10 Conclusion.- References.- 6 Anfal in Practice and Islamic Political Capitalism.- 6.1 Introduction.- 6.2 Institutional Complementarity and General Pattern of Anfal’s Progression.- 6.3 Phase 1: Anfal in Khomeini Era (1979–1989).- 6.4 Holding Structure of BMJ and Islamic Charities.- 6.5 Anfal and Islamic ‘Welfare State’.- 6.6 Anfal’s Progression in its First Phase and Islamic Banks.- 6.7 Phase 2: Anfal and the Transition Period (1989–2005).- 6.8 Setad: The Extension of Anfal and Establishment of a New Giant Holding.- 6.9 Anfal’s Progression in its Second Phase and Islamic Banks.- 6.10 Alliance of Anfal and Sepah.- 6.11 Conclusion.- References.- 7 Privatization Decree: Liberalization or Islamization?.- 7.1 Introduction.- 7.2 Privatization Background Under Rafsanjani and Khatami.- 7.3 Khamenei’s Privatization Decree: Objectives, Process, and Outcomes.- 7.4 Confusing Definitions of Non-state Public Sector.- 7.5 Privatization Decree and the Third Phase of Anfal’s Progression (2006–Now).- 7.6 Anfal and Authoritative Coordination.- 7.7 Anfal and Market Coordination.- 7.8 Anfal and Cooperative Coordination.- 7.9 Anfal and Destructive Coordination.- 7.10 Conclusion.- References.- 8 Islamic Political Capitalism and Economics of Predation.- 8.1 Introduction.- 8.2 Economic and Booty Value of an Asset.- 8.3 Oil as a Mixed (Pure) Captive Asset.- 8.4 Complementarity between Predation and Production: The Shah’s Political Capitalism.- 8.5 Predation Versus Production: Islamic Political Capitalism.- 8.6 Capital and Labor Flight as a Typical Economic Behavior.- 8.7 Economics of Hoarding.- 8.8 Anfal and Ecological Disaster.- 8.9 Conclusion.- References.- 9 Epilogue.- References.- References.