This volume examines how elections and reform across West Asia and North Africa function less as routes to alternation than as instruments of control. Anchored by an integrative introduction and a concluding synthesis, it gathers original studies showing how rules, parties, patronage, and civic mobilisation organise political life.
Contributors trace how incumbents bend law and voting cycles through pliant oversight to simulate responsiveness while weakening opponents, as turnout declines and protest recurs. In some polities electoral forms recede altogether: ballots are suspended, assemblies fall silent, and authority is channelled through appointments and managed consultation.
Israel appears as a democratic outlier under a highly proportional electoral system, a foil to the region’s managed pluralism and electoral authoritarianism. Libya is conceptualised as non-electoral fragmented authoritarianism, where institutional absence hardens into elite bargains and armed networks.
Organised thematically, rather than by country, the volume shows how electoral ritual and performance reshape representation and legitimacy across the region.
Chapter 1: Introduction: Between Contestation and Control: Electoral
Politics and the Quest for Representation in West Asia and North Africa.-
Part I: Electoral Engineering and Regime Legitimation.
Chapter 2: The
Illusion of Reform: Electoral Politics and Monarchical Power in Jordan.-
Chapter 3: Egypts Electoral Politics Post-2011: Legitimacy and Authoritarian
Control.
Chapter 4: Parliamentary Elections and the Road to Reform in
Post-Arab Spring Morocco.
Chapter 5: Saudi Arabia: Electoral Formalism and
the Limits of Citizen Participation under Absolute Monarchy.- Part II:
Opposition Dynamics and Constrained Pluralism.
Chapter 6: Elections and
Executive Power in Kuwaits Monarchy: Reversal of Opposition Gains,
20122024.
Chapter 7: Türkiyes 2023 Elections: Opposition Setbacks and
Future Prospects.
Chapter 8: Authoritarian Governance and Elections in the
UAE and Bahrain: A Comparative Analysis.
Chapter 9: The Illusion of
Consensus: Electoral Politics and the Challenge of Governance in Tunisia.-
Part III: Institutional Fragility and Contested Sovereignty.
Chapter 10: The
Question of Peoples Representation in Iran: Negotiating Democracy with
Divinity.
Chapter 11: Between Ballots and Bullets: The Political Meaning
of Libyas Missing Elections.
Chapter 12: Contesting Representation: Hamas
and Electoral Politics in a Divided Palestine.
Chapter 13: Lebanese
Electoral Politics: Consociationalism and its Limitations.
Chapter 14:
Elections and Representation in Post-Saddam Iraq: Institutional Fragility and
Sectarian Politics.- Part IV: Electoral Engagement and Limits of
Participation.
Chapter 15: Political Participation in Qatar: From Municipal
Elections to the Shura Council.
Chapter 16: Divided We Stand: The Electoral
System and Voter Turnout in Israel, 20192022.
Chapter 17: Elections Without
Alternation in Algeria: Protest Cycles and FLN Continuity under Military
Guardianship.
Chapter 18: Conclusion.
Sujata Ashwarya is Professor at the Centre for West Asian (Middle Eastern) Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. She has published widely on West Asian politics, IndiaWest Asia relations, and the political economy of energy, including Israels Mediterranean Gas and The Arab Spring: Ten Years On.
Mujib Alam is Professor at the MMAJ Academy of International Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. His research focuses on the politics and international relations of West Asia; his publications include Arab Spring and Its Legacies and Perspectives on Turkeys Multi-Regional Role in the 21st Century.
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