Synopses & Reviews
This book examines how ruling elites manipulate political opponents in the Middle East.
Review
"What makes Lust-Okaras book unique is that the author has managed to combine theoretical rigor with case-study analysis to present a sophisticated and intellectually challenging explanation of the failure of political opposition in the Arab world. Highly recommended." CHOICE
Synopsis
Examines how ruling elites manipulate political opponents in the Middle East. In contrast to discussions of government-opposition relations that focus on how rulers either punish or co-opt opponents, this book focuses on the effect of institutional rules governing who is allowed to participate in the formal political system.
About the Author
Ellen Lust-Okar is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. She received her M.A. in Middle Eastern Studies and her Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Michigan. She has studied and conducted research in Jordan, Morocco, Israel, Palestine and Syria, and her work examining the relationships between states and oppositions has appeared in Comparative Politics, Comparative Political Studies, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Middle Eastern Studies and other volumes. She is currently working on a second manuscript, Linking Domestic and International Conflict: The Case of Middle East Rivalries, with Paul Huth at the University of Michigan.
Table of Contents
List of figures and tables; Acknowledgments; A note on the use of language; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. The manipulation of political opposition; 2. Structures of contestation; 3. Playing by the rules: the inclusion and exclusion of political oppositions; 4. Dynamics of opposition in unified SoCs; 5. Opposition dynamics in divided SoCs; 6. Formal SoCs and informal political manipulation; Conclusion; Appendix: political forces in Egypt, Jordan and Morocco; Notes; Bibliography; Index.