SOCIOLOGICAL FOUNDATIONS OF GOVERNANCE: IBN KHALDUN'S PERSPECTIVES.
Keywords:
Ibn Khaldun; asabiyyah; governance; dynastic cycle; social cohesion; political sociology.Abstract
This thesis investigates the sociological foundations of governance as articulated by the fourteenth-century North African polymath Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) in his seminal work, the Muqaddimah. Drawing on an interdisciplinary framework that bridges classical Islamic political sociology and contemporary governance theory, the study systematically examines three interconnected pillars: (1) the concept of asabiyyah (group solidarity) as the primary driver of state formation; (2) the cyclical dynastic model (dawla) as a predictive theory of political change; and (3) the relationship between economic structures, urbanisation, and institutional decay. Using a comparative analytical methodology, Ibn Khaldun's theoretical propositions are benchmarked against modern empirical indicators—including the World Bank Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI, 2022) and cliodynamic datasets—to assess their contemporary explanatory power. The findings suggest that Ibn Khaldun's framework anticipates central concepts in modern political sociology, including social capital theory, legitimacy cycles, and the political economy of state decline. The article concludes that his work constitutes an enduring paradigm for understanding the sociological preconditions of effective governance, with measurable parallels in contemporary state performance data.Downloads
References
1. Ibn Khaldun, A. (1377/1958). The Muqaddimah: An Introduction to History (F. Rosenthal, Trans.). Princeton University Press. (Original work composed 1377 CE)
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