This article develops the concept of sacrificial legitimacy to explain the resilience of the Cuban revolutionary regime in the face of chronic economic crisis, the collapse of the Soviet bloc, and eroding material expectations. In critical dialogue with the literature on authoritarianism and with Cuban historiography, it argues that Castroism's durability cannot be accounted for solely by legitimation, repression, and co-optation or by state-party organizational strength but requires attention to the sacralization of collective suffering as a source of authority. Drawing on Ren & eacute; Girard's mimetic theory and scholarship on political religions, the article conceptualizes the Cuban Revolution as a regime of sacrificial legitimacy that turns scarcity, discipline, and violence into tests of ideological purification tied to a symbolic debt to national martyrs-a debt that obligates only so long as its sacrificial framing remains misrecognized. It traces this mechanism across three historical phases and contends that, in the post-Fidel era, the shift towards barren sacrifice reframes hardship as illegitimate violence, eroding voluntary compliance and opening space for new forms of civil resistance. A contrast with Iran's contemporaneous crisis specifies when that erosion takes contained rather than violent form.
This article examines the conceptualization of power (al-quwa) and empowerment (tamkin) in the political and religious thought of four prominent modern Arab Islamist thinkers: Muhammad Abu Zahra, Muhammad al-Bahi, Yusuf al-Qaradawi, and Sayyid Qutb. Through a comparative analysis of their Arabic writings, the study investigates the origins, dimensions, purposes, and normative regulation of power within an Islamic framework. It argues that contemporary Islamist thought conceives power as a divinely rooted and indispensable condition for the moral, political, and material advancement of individuals, states, and the Muslim umma. Power is understood holistically, encompassing spiritual, ethical, political, economic, and military dimensions, while its legitimate exercise is anchored in Islamic law (sharia) and moral responsibility. The article further develops the concept of empowerment as the construction and consolidation of power across individual, national, and transnational levels. Despite their shared emphasis on faith, collective strength, and the centrality of power to Islamic social and political life, the thinkers examined diverge significantly in their understandings of its legitimate purposes and methods. Whereas Qutb advances a transformative and confrontational conception of power, Abu Zahra, al-Bahi, and al-Qaradawi emphasize reform, social order, justice, and peaceful coexistence. These differences reveal competing approaches to the relationship between Islamic principles, political authority, and the pursuit of collective empowerment.
