Following from the overview of regional diversity in the previous chapter, Chapter 6 discusses economic development and political change in four Indian states in turn: Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Punjab.

Both Ibn Bājja and Ibn Ṭufayl – readers of al-Fārābī in the Islamic West – subscribe to the broad strokes of al-Fārābī’s ideas about humanity. However, in their works on the individual’s mystical journey, they take the gulf between the few and the many so seriously that they ponder whether and how a shared social life between those of excellent and deficient fiṭra is possible or desirable. They both agree with al-Fārābī that human beings share some form of a basic, created nature, or fiṭra; and, broadly speaking, they agree that humans’ fiṭar can be better or worse, which mostly influences people’s access to knowledge. However, they call into question the ability of those of excellent fiṭra to guide or live among those of lesser ones as al-Fārābī had envisioned. As part of this shift in interest, they zoom in on larger, social and political questions. These two Andalusian thinkers powerfully underscore the contested and copious nature of fiṭra and how engagement with fiṭra is part of larger questions about the necessity or possibility of human sociality and the nature of power relations.

Reflecting on the whole book, we begin with a standard call for change, but emphasize the problems of seeking positive change while ignoring the root of the problem. As an inspirational example for the ultimate goal, we use the recent emergence of the Zapatista movement in Mexico, specifying how its philosophy can be felt in progressive movements from Detroit to Puerto Rico. We end with an admonition that our four pillars of agroecology are intimately intersectional and that it would be an error to treat them as independent units.

Chapter 8 systematically compares immigration politics in Morocco and Tunisia and brings to the fore some striking continuities and parallels across democratic and autocratic contexts. I show that the state’s imperative to ensure its legitimation and sovereignty drives some of the key similarities in Moroccan and Tunisian immigration policymaking, such as the tendency to safeguard state power by creating exemption regimes or enacting changes informally. I also demonstrate that histories of state formation and official national identity narratives are key to understanding contemporary immigration politics in both countries. Lastly, I tease out how Morocco’s autocratization and Tunisia’s democratization affected the role, weight and interactions of state apparatus, civil society and external actors in immigration policy over the twenty-first century. I show that while the power of the executive and the weight of domestic political and civil society actors seem sensitive to a ’regime effect’, bureaucratic and international policy dynamics around immigration seem largely unaffected by political regime dynamics.

This chapter looks into the profile of the court adviser in the age of ecclesiastical reform and cultural renewal between c. 790 and c. 840. It explores the rise of the persona of the wise adviser, who spoke up for justice and orthodoxy and who used his familiarity with the ruler to mediate on behalf of others. Who were these counsellors who advocated and embodied frank speech and straightforward advice as agents of social and political change? What were the qualities and credentials that qualified them as competent advisers? And to what extent were advisers at liberty to express their admonitions, criticism and advice openly and directly? To answer these questions, this chapter investigates the advice literature of the late eighth and first half of the ninth century: that is, hortatory letters and mirrors for princes, written in response to, or as part of, attempts to create a well-organised, orthodox and just Christian society by educating its rulers.

This chapter discusses the lives and letters of saints and bishops who were considered truth-tellers by their contemporaries. The selected letters and saints’ lives were written in Francia between c. 550 and c. 750. In addition, two hagiographic texts and one letter from Italy and Visigothic Spain are included to compare developments in Merovingian Francia with other kingdoms and regions of the former Western Roman empire. In the selected sources we encounter Gallo-Roman, Frankish, Visigothic, Anglo-Saxon and Irish holy men who ventured to criticise those in power. Although the rhetoric of these truth-tellers and the vocabulary of their biographers do not conform to classical standards, this chapter demonstrates that their frank speech and behaviour was very much related to the late antique tradition of free speech.

This concluding chapter reviews the main findings of the book and situates these in the literature of authoritarian legislatures. It then discusses the implications for long-term growth by looking at how selective property rights may affect innovation, corruption and property security in China. The book ends with the question of whether we are witnessing an entrepreneurial source of democratization. I suggest that Chinese entrepreneurs still pose no immediate threat to the regime, but the common interest of property security is strong enough to provide a sufficient condition for a unified class and initiate institutional change when the opportunity arises.