Democratisation in the Maghreb

The past few years have been a period of unprecedented political upheaval for the Maghreb. A protest which began in a provincial city in one of North Africa’s quieter corners quickly engulfed the entire region. Presidents of decades standing were swept from office on waves of public discontent while their counterparts elsewhere nervously tried to calm the mob. In several places these protests are still being played out; in the law courts of Egypt, on the battlefields of Libya, and in the leaking tubs carrying migrants to Europe. And even where the winds of change have died down, the political and social landscape is altered from before. Herein lies a defining paradox of the Arab Spring; its ubiquity and singularity. Nearly all of the region’s countries have been affected. But despite making similar demands in largely the same ways over much the same period, their respective protest movements have achieved different results. Drawing on Steven Levitsky and Lucan Way’s celebrated model for examining political transitions, this book explains these discrepancies, why Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco and Mauritania have reached different outcomes. It does so by contextualising each country’s experiences, by examining and comparing their political development over the past decade.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements; Abbreviations; Introduction; 1. Levitsky and Way and Competitive Authoritarianism; Leverage, Linkage and Organisational Power: An Overview; Leverage; Linkage; Organisational Power; Conclusions; 2. Tunisia; Linkage; Leverage; Organisational Power; Origins and Evolution of the Regime; Conclusions; 3. Algeria; Linkage; Leverage; Organisational Power; Origins and Evolution of the Regime; Conclusions; 4. Morocco; Linkage; Leverage; Organisational Power; Origins and Evolution of the Regime; Conclusions; 5. Mauritania; Linkage; Leverage; Organisational Power; Origins and Evolution of the Regime; Conclusions; Conclusions; Index.

About the Author :
J.N.C Hill is Reader in Postcolonialism and the Maghreb in the Defence Studies Department at King’s College London. He is also an Associate Member of the Institute of Middle Eastern Studies at King’s College London and a Visiting Fellow of the Middle East Centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a member of the Board of Advisory Editors for the Middle East Journal and a Fellow of the British Society for Middle Eastern Studies. He is author of Nigeria since Independence: Forever Fragile? (2012) and Identity in Algerian Politics: The Legacy of Colonial Rule (2009).

Review :
A valuable and rigorous comparative analysis of the divergent democratizing outcomes of the political upheaval that shook the Maghreb in the years surrounding the “Arab Spring”. [Democratisation in the Maghreb] addresses how the uprisings have changed politics in state-to-state dynamics, or international relations...One of Hill’s most important contributions comes with its application of Levisky and Way’s theory to North Africa, utilizing underexploited cases where it has never before been tested.' This book is original and timely. It is truly brilliant in many ways. I think it has almost everything a modern book on democratization in the Middle East and North Africa should have – a reliance on Levitsky and Wayne’s model, openness to new approaches of democratization processes, and an understanding of the stumbling blocks facing democracy in North Africa and beyond. It is a sophisticated book that provides an elegant and useful analysis of the situation of democracy in the Maghreb before and after the Arab Spring.' This book is original and timely. It is truly brilliant in many ways. I think it has almost everything a modern book on democratization in the Middle East and North Africa should have – a reliance on Levitsky and Wayne’s model, openness to new approaches of democratization processes, and an understanding of the stumbling blocks facing democracy in North Africa and beyond. It is a sophisticated book that provides an elegant and useful analysis of the situation of democracy in the Maghreb before and after the Arab Spring. 'Democratisation in the Maghreb provides a good overview of the changing political landscape following the Arab Spring. In particular, it has the value of considering the under-studied aftermath of the 2011-12 protests in Algeria and Mauritania. Moreover, Hill’s close reading of Levitsky and Way means that the volume is an important contribution to the theoretical literature on democratic transition.' J.N.C. Hill has produced a convincing account of politics in the Maghreb which is theoretically sophisticated and filled with empirical insight. It is particularly valuable for its inclusion of the case of Mauritania alongside those of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco, and deserves a wide readership among scholars and students alike.'