Abstract

This conclusion traces elections across West Asia and North Africa as regimes invoke rights and representation yet keep authority beyond voters’ reach. The volume moves from Iran to Kuwait and the Gulf monarchies, which stage participation without yielding rule, through Egypt and Jordan, where ballots deepen authoritarian resilience, then to Iraq and Lebanon caught in paralysis, with Türkiye edging into similar deadlock. Tunisia and Algeria mark rollback and stagnation. Morocco manages competition without alternation, while Libya shows elections falling away. Israel appears as a democratic outlier, where proportional rules turn conflict into coalition bargaining yet leave fractures intact, while Palestine remains under occupation and split authority, its ballots unable to secure self-rule as the war in Gaza pushes elections to the margins. Across these settings, elections act less as hinges than as rituals that steady rule.