Search

This study investigates the impact of ethnic diversity on electoral democracy in Sudan, a nation grappling with ethnic, sectarian, and regional identity politics. Using a mixed-method approach, the study employs Time Series analysis from 1990 to 2019, followed by theoretical analysis to explore the relationship between ethnic diversity and electoral democracy. The framework of this study draws from relevant studies on this nexus, incorporating factors such as racial/ethnic voting motivations, corruption, institutional dynamics, conflict, and individual income. The study bridges a gap in the existing literature by providing insights into the mechanisms through which ethnic identities shape democratisation processes in the African region. The findings reveal an influence of ethnic diversity on electoral democracy, as evidenced by factors such as violent conflicts, political institutions, and economic inequality. Additionally, the study delves into contemporary implications of ethnic dynamics on democratic processes, particularly examining the military confrontations between the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) since April 2023. The practical implications of this study lie in developing effective strategies to mitigate the political repercussions of ethnicity, thereby fostering a peaceful democratic transition. Therefore, the findings may not be readily applicable to other regions or nations with distinct historical, cultural, or geopolitical contexts that might influence the interplay between ethnic diversity and electoral democracy differently. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2011, Egypt saw one of the largest protest movements in its modern history: the 25th of January revolution. One of its major demands was the call for democracy and end of dictatorship after 30 years of Mubarak's rule. After ousting Mubarak, the Egyptian public sphere witnessed an openness. Even with increasing levels of oppression and violence, there were open spaces for freedom of association, expression, and demonstration, etc. Yet, in 2013 and with the intense protests against the elected Muslim Brotherhood (MB) president, the military interfered and ousted the elected president. In light of these events, Egypt witnessed a backlash against democracy under the pretext of fighting 'terrorism'. Since then, Egypt has been seeing manifestations of this relapse on almost all levels, in terms of legislations, decrees, practices that closed the public space to any protesting voices, with higher levels of oppression and violence against the opposition and not only the so-called 'terrorists'. In this context, this paper proposes to dissect the Egyptian stumbling road to democratisation since 2011. It examines internal factors as well as the role of regional and international actors in orchestrating developments in Egypt. The paper proposes that the process of democratisation in Egypt has faced multiple drawbacks, not only related to regime type (military rule) but also with respect to social movements, the involvement of regional actors, etc.. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay investigates the rise of authoritarianism in Morocco and its resurgence despite several reforms implemented by the Moroccan regime. The author provides a new perspective on democracy and democratic transformation whilst also considering the political regime's particularities, such as the constitutional imprints, the political configuration, and cultural history. The research questions are addressed with a focus on the 2011 constitutional reform. We will offer an original perspective on democracy and democratisation in Morocco, considering the fact that the latter is employed as a vast political framework for demonstrating international conformity and, legitimising authority and institutions. This essay investigates the resurgence of authoritarianism in Morocco despite the several reforms implemented by the Moroccan regime since the independence of the country in 1956. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Beyond the euphoria of the early revolutionary moments, in 2010-2011, muted counter-revolutionary setbacks followed elite-led 'democratisation'. For those who construed the political developments in the aftermath of the popular uprisings in Tunisia, in the wake of Ben Ali's autocratic regime dismantlement, as a first step in the direction of a 'democratic transition', disappointments were on the horizon. By the summer of 2021, the sudden re-emergence of a powerful presidency in the name of 'returning sovereignty to the people', while the ghost of the oligarchic state and the spectre of the authoritarian elites still hung about, opened the door for the return of a bureaucratic police state. Meanwhile, the effects of lingering economic and health crises were compounded by politico-constitutional wrangling. These further clouded an already polarised social environment and created the political conditions for the 'restoration' of the 'presidentialist regime'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The United States has invested billions of dollars in promoting democracy in the Maghreb. In the decade following the Arab Spring, some of that investment appeared to be bearing fruit, particularly in the case of Tunisia. Today, however, the Maghreb has joined the global trend of authoritarian backsliding. This article will examine US democracy promotion efforts in the Maghreb over the past 20 years to assess what role US support has had in helping as well as hindering democratisation in the region. The article will look critically at the tools and policy approaches employed by the United States beginning with President George W. Bush's Freedom Agenda and establishment of the Middle East Partnership Initiative, examining the Obama administration's approach towards the aftermath of the 2011 uprisings, and ending with President Biden's renewed focus on democracy. The piece will attempt to answer the question of why, despite significant and high-level attention on democracy promotion, US efforts have failed to produce their desired results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The role of civil society as a democratising force, both under authoritarian regimes and during political transitions, has received renewed attention in the wake of the 'Arab Spring' uprisings. Considerable praise has been reserved for Tunisia, whose civil society played a prominent role in the country's successful transition. However, as a thorough analysis of the Tunisian example illustrates, this contrasts sharply with its relatively marginal role in the pre-2011 period. Indeed, Tunisian civil society has not always been a pro-democracy force, its functions shifted with the political context, and different types of civil society organisations (CSOs) played widely different roles. Tracing the evolution of civil society in Tunisia from the establishment of the Ben Ali regime in November 1987 until after its fall in January 2011, the article develops a more nuanced and dynamic understanding of its roles before, during, and after the revolution. More specifically, it shows that before the revolution, only a handful of CSOs served as islands of political resistance, while the majority functioned as vehicles of regime resilience, helping to strengthen authoritarian rule in the country. During the revolution, members of more critical CSOs played an important supporting role in the spread, organisation, and continuation of protests. Finally, in the post-revolutionary period, former oppositional CSOs, together with a plethora of newly created CSOs, were crucial not only in successfully steering the country towards a democratic transition but also in strengthening the nascent democracy. Civil society should thus be understood in its variety and particular political context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After decades of irrelevance, the 2011 regime changes in Egypt, Libya and Tunisia stimulated hope that political parties would eventually strengthen their importance across North Africa, as in the projected future democracies the varieties of opinions across the citizenries were expected to be needed represented better in the political processes. Local as well as international organisations engaged in tailormade programmes for the setup and support of democratic and inclusive political parties. However, apart from notably Tunisia, no visible strengthening of democratic parties has occurred so far. While this failure has many reasons, this article argues that a core problem for higher relevance of political parties in North Africa is the lack of sufficient arenas for their activism, resulting in particular from the weakness of parliaments. As long as no relevant legislatures exist, the article claims, no adequately democratic, and effective, parties can be created. Yet, the relation between parliaments and parties is not a one-way road, as also the other relation is important: as long as parties remain irrelevant, parliaments will not be able to grow into meaningful loci of politics either. Hence, the paper problematises the fundamental 'chicken and egg' question for the analysis of the mutual interdependence of political parties and parliaments in North Africa. After a thorough assessment of both institutions' current shortcomings, it will trace ways to strengthen the relevance of both, political parties and parliaments, and show that both endeavours bear the chance of lasting success only if conducted in parallel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Arab uprisings paved the way for democratic elections in the Middle East and North Africa region. Yet countries in this region, except for Tunisia, were not able to maintain further democratisation. Tunisia, regardless of economic turbulence and security problems, managed to hold its second parliamentary elections in October 2014, and Ennahda, the party of the popular Islamist movement, could not keep mass support. A large number of studies have examined the rise of the Islamist parties as their electoral success in the post-Arab Uprisings elections by focusing on their organisational strength as well as their social services. However, the social basis of secular parties in the region has been overlooked in the democratisation literature. In this study, four competing arguments, religious–secularism cleavage, nostalgia for the old regime, negative campaign targeting Islamists, and retrospective voting, are considered as the key determinants of citizens' party choices. By using original election survey data, this study asserts that secular Nidaa Tounes derived its support from secular people, who, at the same time, sympathised with the old regime and disfavoured Islamists. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article employs the concept of critical junctures within the Tunisian transition to explain Al-Nahda's transformation. The party's new attitude is explained as a product of the causal mechanism that links critical junctures and path dependence. Relying on qualitative analysis, this article offers an innovative approach to the development of the party. It shifts the focus from the causes behind Al-Nahda's transformation to the effects that the party' choices had on the transition to democracy and the new political system, highlighting how the agency of their decision-making in 2013 and 2014 guided the party–and the Tunisian transition–on a trajectory that enhanced the democratisation process. The article argues that since 2013 Al-Nahda has gradually accumulated democratic capital, fostering national reconciliation, which ultimately provided the party with the freedom to adopt a new political outlook. Finally, this article offers an innovative reasoning that refines theoretical tools when it comes to investigate the participation of Islamic parties in democratisation processes or political change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After 2011, several Arab states initiated decentralisation reforms to address the demonstrators' demands for more participative governance and more efficient public services. Taking Morocco's new decentralisation reform as a case in point, this article assesses the requirements for, and impediments to, progress. It discovers that the reform articulates important democratic principles and formally opens new spaces of action that may facilitate more efficient and participative governance. However, historical legacies of centralised control, few opportunities for participation, low institutional capacities and weak accountability, and also unclear regulations within the reform, are still hindering effective decentralisation. The potentially positive impact of current reforms on political liberalisation is thus uncertain. Recent uprisings in the Rif region are symptomatic of the neglect of regional inequalities and grievances, and of related dissatisfaction. They also illustrate that increased regional autonomy can only alleviate the structural problems in the longer term and when thoroughly implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Morocco's international development enterprise, the National Initiative for Human Development (INDH), aims to boost the economy and stimulate the integration of marginalised groups, including rural women. Has the INDH achieved social impact? Are attitudes changing toward women's economic independence, literacy, numeracy, political participation, and overall freer participation in a society that has long disadvantaged women? This mixed-methods approach to impact evaluation compares rural women's and men's views toward democratisation and women's empowerment in developing communities where INDH-supported argan oil cooperatives exist and in similar, undeveloped communities where they do not. Using two survey instruments tailored to women and men, the American-Moroccan research team collected quantitative and qualitative data through 829 surveys with randomly selected, overwhelmingly Amazigh (Berber) participants in fifty-four communities in the Atlas Mountains and their foothills. Results reveal the core tension of the INDH mission. While the impact of these programmes, or treatment, is clearer on women than on men—the men being profoundly conflicted—positive correlations exist between treatment and women earning money and viewing opportunity in their communities. At the same time, in some regards treatment adversely correlates to greater gender parity, and in crucial ways other variables, such as basic math skills, more strongly predict favourable attitudes than treatment. In effect, rather than transforming society, these INDH-funded programmes strengthen the state's stability and control, giving just enough help to rural women to have a modest positive impact without eroding the bedrock of traditional rural society, which the argan tree poetically symbolises for Moroccans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the evolving foreign policy roles of four sets of civil society actors – youth, women's, labour and human rights groups – in Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia during the Arab Spring and beyond. Our findings demonstrate that civil society groups initially flourished in the Arab Spring, with the region's average 'civil society rights score' registering positive increases in 2011 and 2012. The period of 2013 to 2018 witnessed a deterioration in this average score, as civil society faced an authoritarian backlash from illiberal (authoritarian) and liberal (democratic) North African regimes. An examination of individual civil society organisations further demonstrates a range of influence on foreign policy. Youth groups exert the least impact on North African foreign policies, despite high expectations associated with their central role in revolutionary protests and change associated with the Arab Spring. In contrast, women's, labour and especially human rights organisations have played more influential if still limited foreign policy roles. Finally, the impact of civil society on foreign policy is strongly mediated by a country's level of democracy. Only in Tunisia, which made a successful transition to democracy, have civil society organisations in the post-Arab Spring continuously enjoyed the freedoms to organise, protest and provide input into policy, including foreign policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Egypt’s parliament has been broadly excluded from the country’s political developments since the 2011 uprisings. The nadir of its influence was reached when the House of Representatives (lower house) was dissolved in summer 2012, followed by the Shura Council (former upper house) in summer 2013. Subsequently, no parliament existed until new elections, repeatedly postponed, were eventually conducted in fall 2015. This delay seemed to be part of the government’s strategy, as it used these years without a parliament to draft an electoral law that made formation of a legislature critical of the regime highly unlikely. The repeated electoral postponements also imposed specific burdens on the revolutionary parties that struggled to compete with the former elites. This article examines the contributions of Egypt’s parliament to the country’s transition trajectory, discusses the relevant changes made to the constitution and electoral law, and concludes that the parliament’s contribution to Egypt’s development has been limited, and will most probably remain so in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Morocco did not experience any radical/revolutionary change in 2011 and it does not seem to be following the conventional steps of the transition paradigm (Liberalisation, breakthrough, and consolidation). However, this situation does not necessarily mean the country is stuck with the status quo. It can be rather analysed as a third way of democratisation, referred to sometimes in the Moroccan political context as ‘the Moroccan exceptionalism', and it is shaped by several factors that are specific to the Moroccan society, inter alia, the political culture, the prevailing value system, the nature of the party system, etc. In light of the above, the paper focuses on two interrelated aspects of the evolutionary democratisation process in Morocco: It analyses the history and origins of the current unprecedented cohabitation between the king and an Islamist chief of government, and the extent to which this cohabitation is likely to pave the way for a more democratic power-sharing. It also examines its implications for the practical functioning of the system (in terms of the emergence of a Moroccan specific polity, by focusing on, e.g., democracy-learning). [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The article charts the rise of the jihadi Salafi movement in Tunisia during the transitional period and analyses the way in which the national attempt to construct a more liberal and democratic system influenced its internal dynamics and debate. It highlights in particular how democratic mechanisms and liberal norms being put in place in Tunisia impacted on the movement and how then this was reflected in its interactions with the other social and political actors in the system. The unique Tunisian environment in which democratic mechanisms and individual liberal freedoms were introduced immediately after the revolution led the jihadi Salafi movement to operate through contradictory behaviour and actions in a process of what can be called ‘stop-start’ democratic learning, which ultimately failed. The novelty of the political arrangements was beneficial to jihadi Salafism initially, as the new liberal environment allowed it to proselytise and organise in the open while railing against democracy and liberalism. In doing so they unwillingly contributed to strengthen the consensus of political actors on the necessity to build a democratic system. However, under the weight of this contradictory attitude, the movement ended up threatening the transition and failed to integrate. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This contribution (and the special issue as a whole) marks a modest attempt to initiate an investigation into what is called here ‘democratic knowledge’. This is done with special reference to the Arab Maghrib (in this instance Algeria, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Egypt). This focus is deliberate. In the wake of the Arab Spring it is apposite to shed light on the potentiality of a ‘democratic turn’. Perhaps no other phenomenon equals the emerging ‘laboratory’ of ideas in terms of impact-making on the ‘political’, specifically. Indeed, the Arab Spring has highlighted the importance of ideas and values. They are set to shake Maghrebi polities and societies out of their furled state of stupor resulting from close to five decades of postcolonial (mis)rule. The article opens up with a critical discussion of knowledge and knowledge production, accounting for diverse understandings and their intellectual genealogy. It then turns to the question of decolonising democratic knowledge practices, highlighting challenges facing transitology as well as knowledge production in newly democratising settings. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

What are the sources of democratic knowledge in a context devoid of relevant experience and institutions? More than other Arab Spring states, Libya lacked the ingredients for successful democratisation. Yet, Libya's Arab Spring uprising was also unique in that external actors, Western and Arab, supported it through military intervention. Why was the international community's successful intervention to protect civilians and help overthrow the Qadhafi regime not translated into creating the conditions for stability, security, and the construction of democratic institutions after that regime fell? This article analyses the international dimension of Libya's transition and argues that the potential for external actors to be effective sources of democratic knowledge in post-Qadhafi Libya was severely constrained from the outset by the absence of leverage and linkages, two key factors highlighted in research on the international dimension of democratisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For over a decade I co-edited the Journal of Latin American Studies, and more recently I have been reflecting on the rationale for comparative area studies. So, when invited to write an introduction to this issue it was irresistible to stray into what for me is essentially Tierra incognita, and to offer some suggestions about alternative ways of imagining the core characteristics of this challenging large region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What has the Arab Spring meant to women, and women's rights, in the region? Three years after the mass social protests of January and February 2011, when and where can we expect the promises of democracy and equality, and the revolutionary spirit of unity and purpose, to be realised? This Foreword offers a stock-taking of events and possible future directions, with a focus on prospects for a women-friendly democratisation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

In Algeria, the last two decades were marked by the increasingly visible political influence of private-sector actors. Considered as potential agents of change, they have often been expected to contribute to democratisation in their country, particularly after the introduction of a multiparty system and the transition from a socialist model to a market economy in the late 1980s. The analysis of economic actors' political involvement in Algeria raises questions concerning modes of renewal of political leadership. The Algerian case demonstrates that the inclusion of new private-sector actors in the political arena does not mean that the system has opened itself to competition for the management of the country's wealth, even less its democratisation. However, the increased presence of the figure of the ‘businessman’ in the Algerian political arena reveals the authorities' strategy of diversifying alliances in order to preserve their monopoly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The role of social media as a catalyst of the ‘Arab Spring’ has been subject to much debate – both by academics and the press. Likewise, the impact of international media, such asAl-Jazeera, has been thoroughly examined elsewhere. While acknowledging the significance of these players, this article explores the emergence of a new landscape of local print and broadcast media in revolutionary Libya that is both the result of the dramatic changes that the country has undergone and one of their facilitators. This article analyses the political impact of these new forms of media during and after the 2011 Libyan uprisings, with an emphasis on how the role and the self-image of journalists and media producers has evolved alongside with Libya's political transformation. It is demonstrated that the new Libyan media began their life as ‘partisan advocates’ and that different societal currents are now struggling to set the new role of media. It concludes with an analysis of the newly implemented legal framework and institutions which govern the Libyan media. It remains unclear if recent legislation will protect independent media from the authorities or, conversely, allow the state to exert censorship and consolidate its ownership over the media. This article analyses the various approaches to media jurisdiction prevalent in post-Qadhafi Libya as reflecting various degrees of state intervention. This discussion reflects the inherent contradictions of a society which, with very little preparation, has had to manage the change from conditions of absolute governmental control to conditions of relative anarchy. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Why did Mauritania, an Arab League member, undergo a short-lived democratic transition after a successful coup in 2005? Mauritania's democratisation is puzzling because it occurred despite the presence of two conditions that are thought to hinder the prospects of democracy: poverty and strategic importance to the West. We trace the democratisation process undertaken by Mauritania's successful coup leaders in 2005 by focusing on the regime's foreign aid sources. We find that because coup leaders overthrew a Western ally, they feared aid flows would decline. The coup leaders therefore calculated that democratisation would shore up ties by signalling that the new regime was committed to maintaining a strong relationship with Western donors. Our findings have important implications for top-down democratisation in North Africa and the Middle East. Strategic importance appears to be a matter of degree, and states with modest importance to donors, such as Mauritania, may use democratisation as a means to posture themselves as valuable to powerful external actors. Democratic reforms, however, can have sticking power and trap future aid-dependent elites who attempt to strategically manipulate domestic reforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no universal agreement on the specific function of elections in the processes of political liberalisation on which many countries in the Arab World are embarked today. This work considers the argument that the observation of electoral policies is one of the best ways of approaching and understanding the role played by elections in these countries. In line with this predetermination, this article presents a case study focused on the Tunisian casuistry, aiming to clarify the role played by elections in the process of Tunisian political liberalisation on which Ben Ali embarked 22 years ago. With this purpose in mind, the analysis focuses on the parliamentary and presidential policies implemented throughout the five elections held in Tunisia between 1989 and 2009. In doing so, it seeks to answer the following questions: What was the covert strategy that underlies each election policy? What were the legal foundations for those policies? What impact did they have on the elections? Did they affect the configuration of the party system? As a result, this paper concludes that in the short term these elections have legitimated the prolongation of the dominance of Ben Ali and his party. In the long term, these have favoured three phenomena: first, the maintenance of the cleavage between insiders and outsiders of the legal system; second, the decomposition of the political image of the institutionalised parties; and third, the disarticulation of the non-institutionalised political forces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As the constitutions of Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia approach and reach the half-century mark, it is interesting to trace their evolution. The constitutions of all three countries have undergone myriad amendments and revisions over the years which, while creating an impression of active constitutional process, also indicate instability and the shortcomings of governing formulas in the region. This article explores a number of parallels that can be observed in the countries' constitutional evolutions. It finds however, that to a large extent, the number of reforms is misleading: many changes have been cosmetic, designed not to advance the countries along a constitutionalist path, but rather to tweak their political operating systems so as to adapt them to political developments, and above all, allow for their rulers' survival. However, while reforms such as the modification to the Algerian constitution on 12 November 2008 allowing the unlimited re-election of the Head of State, hardly represent democratic progress, the fact that a constitutional revision has to be undertaken first should be seen in itself as an advance. This goes to show something that will be made clear during the course of this article: the increasing, long-term importance in recent decades of constitutional law, even in countries without constitutionalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Like many liberation movements, the Polisario Front has long aspired to the practice of democracy. In recent years, however, some observers of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR) have come to question the absence of multiple parties in elections and political life. The Polisario Front and many Sahrawi hold that a multi-party system can only be introduced after an act of self-determination and that in the meantime, the SADR enjoys participatory democracy. This paper argues that the gap between scepticism about and confidence in the SADR's democracy arises from different interpretations of democracy, and that the SADR is a suggestive reminder of how the principles of democracy can be pursued through multiple interpretations. Yet the gap between the two positions also reflects a process of ongoing democratisation in the SADR, a recent phase of which can be observed in the 2008 legislative elections. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]