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In comparison the Western countries have largely not suffered from this type of political instability during the last hundred years. What differentiates Western political institutions from those in the Muslim world is that they developed organically over a number of centuries, adapted themselves to different realities over time and represent an effective social consensus on how these societies go about solving their problems. For example, the operation of and the relationship between the British Houses of Parliament, the Judiciary, the Monarchy, the Army and the civil service has been defined over a number of years, as the British state found itself in different situations and with different problems. Even today, it is still adapting to new realities; for example the role of the House of Lords is being redefined in light of the fact that aristocracy is no longer as powerful as big business interests and it is difficult to justify why hereditary peers should participate in the legislative process. There is a social consensus over the role of these institutions and as a result it is not possible that a small clique of people - Generals or otherwise - could undertake a coup in Britain and start making the laws themselves; the rest of society would just not accept it. However in the Muslim world, the institutions that exist are not home grown or organically developed, they do not reflect the historical experience of people and do not connect with their traditions or values. What this means is that there is very little social consensus on these systems i.e. they have very limited legitimacy and there is little or no reaction from people when a general undertakes a coup. In addition, Muslim countries tend to have very influential westernised elites, who have usually studied abroad and are often wealthy; they are usually ignorant of their own history and traditions and their wealth allows them to live very detached lives from the rest of society. Because of their situation and attitudes they are unable to comprehend why the rest of society behaves in the way it does and they come to look down upon the masses.
Prior to the colonisation of the Muslim world, many Muslim politicians and thinkers had seen modernisation and industrialisation take place in Western nations and had come to the conclusion that the Muslim world was backward and needed to be reformed. This was a natural situation as there was much interaction and trade between the Muslim and non-Muslim world. The debate had started and there were a variety of opinions as to how Muslims should 'modernise' themselves. Iranian intellectuals Mulkum Khan (1833-1908) and Agha Khan Kermani (1853-96) urged Iranians to acquire a Western education and replace the Shariah (the religious legal code) with a modern secular legal code. Some of the Ottoman sultans pursued western models of industrialisation and modernisation of their own accord. For example, Sultan Mahmud II inaugurated the Tanzimat (Regulation) in 1826 which abolished the Janissaries [the highly dedicated elite corps of troops organised in the fourteenth century], modernised the army and introduced some new technology. In 1839 Sultan Abdul Hamid issued the Gulhane decree which made his rule dependent upon a contractual relationship with his subjects and looked forward to major reform of the caliphate's institutions. Some Muslim scholars took an approach of re-interpreting Islam so that it was more conformant to western models; they wanted to maintain some Islamic values and principles whilst justifying the adoption of some western concepts which they thought would bring Muslim progress. There were many such modernising scholars, but two of the most famous ones were Jamal al-Din al-Afghani (1838-97) and Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905). At this time the need for change was evident to many thinkers, but the nature of this change and the path to achieving it was poorly defined.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century the desire for reformation was very strong in the Muslim world. It was self evident to most of the political elites, intellectuals, Muslim scholars and educated people that something needed to be done; the status quo was unacceptable. They had concluded that in many respects Muslims were far behind the West and needed to catch up. Looking back to this time it is very likely that if Muslims had been left to their own devices, a social consensus would have been developed in the Muslim world as to what form this change should have taken. The social consensus may have taken several decades to occur but it would have been home grown, would have happened organically and would have adapted the Muslim world to new realities.
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