For Area Studies to be interdisciplinary, or transdisciplinary, it must go beyond the mere combination of achievements of different disciplines in relation to a particular case in a particular region. Research has to be conducted in such a manner that a new horizon emerges as a result of intellectual endeavour of a researcher who encompasses more than one discipline while he/she tries to penetrate into indigenous society and read its inherent logic. A case study, simply applying disciplinary methods to a particular region, is not a work of Area Studies, even it is a good work in the discipline. Equally, a work in Area Studies, lacking any disciplinary foundation or methodological perspective, could be quite unscientific.
It goes without saying, therefore, that an Area specialist should strive to open a dimension where disciplinary-founded methodologies and area-specific / field-based knowledge can compliment each other. There are no easy roads to achieve it, and constant trial to merge the two is essential. The cooperation of the two is important both at personal and collective levels for academic works. The cooperation has been, however, largely absent between Comparative Politics (or, even Political Science in general) and Middle East Area Studies. As a part of efforts to overcome this unfortunate situation, this article proposes to set “Islamic political parties” as a field of study, which challenges the conventional wisdoms of comparative politics, such as presumed secularism of modern politics, while fills a gap in Middle Eastern politics.
Survey on Islamic countries shows that there are a significant number of political parties that claim to be Islamic ones to are considered as such in their respective societies. At the analytical level, they can be categorized as a particular kind of political parties based on ideologies of Islamic politics, such as non-dualism of religion and politics. Prospects of “Islamic democracy” where these Islamic political parties compete with each other and with other (non-Islamic) parties seem quite important as a political phenomenon in Asia and Africa.

Secularisation and Westernisation/modernisation of the 1930-40 period affected the Muslim society in the Middle East and caused two types of reaction. One is popularisation of the crisis of Islam, i.e., the spread of the consciousness of the fear for losing the existing value system. It was a rather general phenomenon in the entire Middle Eastern Muslim society. The second reaction was from the narrower community of ‘ulamā’ al-dīn, who feared the loss of their traditional position in society. This was more apparent in academic hierarchy among Shi‘i ‘ulamā’.
Muḥammad Bāqir al-Ṣadr developed his Islamic thought reflecting on these two waves. His aims were (1) to activate Islamic political movements in the framework of the modern-type of political parties (institutionalising political movement), and (2) to modernise and institutionalise marja‘īya instead of individual marja‘īya. The first aim was pursued in the context of the enlargement of the broader Islamic political activities including laymen. The second aim, on the other hand, involved regulation and systematisation of the intervention of ‘ulamā’ in politics, which had been observed in a sporadic and individual way through out the history of Shi‘i marja‘īya.
al-Da‘wa was designed to achieve both purposes. Though it was established parallel to marja‘īya and most of its founding members were from ḥawza, political circumstances forced them to withdraw from the party. Consequently, supremacy of the laymen was established in the leadership of al-Da‘wa in the 1970s, and they introduced the organisational set-up, election system and internal regulation after loss of their sole marja‘. This process led the party to the separation of political leadership from marja‘īya. We may consider the feature of al-Da‘wa as a symbol of modernity, and that it represents the ideological aspect of marja‘īya.
In contrast to political development of al-Da‘wa, other Islamic organisations such as ‘Amal and SCIRI are rather inclined to depend on social networks of marja‘īya in their activities. This is a part of the reason why they do not name themselves as a “party”; indeed for them it is rather important to enter the political sphere without using a name of “party” which carries with it imported Western images. This pattern in the Islamic movement emphases the effectiveness of the traditional network of ‘ulamā’ or sayyids based on their sacredness, nobility of origin, or salvation of the soul. It can be acknowledged as an extension of the traditional social welfare network of marja‘īya.
To conclude from what al-Da‘wa and SCIRI could achieved, it is clear that the effort to institutionalise the political party was successfully accomplished but the institutionalisation of marja‘īya is yet to be achieved. This does not mean, however, that the attempt for institutionalisation of marja‘īya has abandoned. If we believe what is reported on the assassination of Sadiq al-Sadr, there remain still some forces to proceed with the reform movements of marja‘īya inside Iraq. Shubbar suggests that the delay of political movements among Shi‘i is because of the presence of marja‘īya, and that after 40 years of experimentation with the political party idea we again see marja‘īya working as an alternative to the immobilised political parties.

In this paper, we focus on the educational resource allocation system that considers differences in socio-economic backgrounds (Socioekonomisk resursfördelning) in Sweden and examine the system's elements to consider a Japanese alternative to the system.

We analyze the Swedish system from the following four viewpoints: 1) allocation based on differences in socioeconomic backgrounds, 2) the verification of the effect by linking input and outcomes, 3) the preparation and utilization of data, and 4) a clear allocation formula that guarantees transparency. Accordingly, an analysis was conducted on the materials issued by the Swedish Local Government Association (SKR: Sveriges Kommuner och Regioner) (formerly, SKL) and the data collected through an interview with a an SKL employee.

Results revealed that the Swedish system not only makes a strategic gradient allocation after assuming needs and risks but also verifies the allocation's result using relevant data and constantly upgrades itself based on the verification. In other words, the educational resource allocation system is implemented based on the evidence-based plan-do-check-act cycle to achieve social justice. These points should be considered when developing a resource allocation system in Japan. However, multiple barriers must be overcome both theoretically and institutionally to realize these points. In this paper, I reconsider these barriers from the four aforementioned viewpoints.

First, for viewpoint 1, the allocation system in Japan is strictly based on equal distribution and does not promote movements and philosophies that support gradual allocation. In addition, there is a strong tendency to view education from the perspective of self-responsibility (Nakazawa 2014) (Yano et al. 2016)．

Second, regarding point 2, the spread of evidence-based policymaking is being affected by neoliberal policy design in Japan. However, these efforts focus on ex-post (outcome) evaluations and are characterized by only a weak intention to provide input variations

Further, point 3 denotes the biggest obstacle to the implementation of a system in Japan similar to that of Sweden. In Japan, we do not have reliable high-quality data; furthermore, there are no intermediate organizations to analyze data, translate the analysis, and support policymaking. Therefore, it is difficult to formulate a clear allocation method that guarantees transparency, as required by viewpoint 4). Hence, it is necessary to create an intermediary organization function that acts as a mediator and translator of evidence similar to the Swedish Local Government Association to develop discussions based on facts and evidence supported by high-quality data.

Finally, we consider the cultural and social aspects that will particularly be required in the future. We should accept a trial-and-error method to design education policy, aim to develop an efficient system, and discuss various system alternatives that link social justice-related public policy norms (Sano 2010).