Abstract

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.