By Daniel L. Tavana, Princeton University
The evolution of Kuwaiti opposition groups following changes to Kuwait's electoral law fundamentally altered the dynamics of electoral contests after the Arab Spring, the author writes.
Emerging scholarship on economic and sustainable development in the Gulf is presented in this report, which is the result of a workshop in London organized by the Baker Institute and Chatham House. The work is part of a two-year project on "Building Pluralistic and Inclusive States Post-Arab Spring" funded by the Carnegie Corporation.
The PJD's pragmatic politics — intended to maintain the king’s support and appeal to heterogeneous constituencies — failed to protect the party from fragmentation and moves to weaken it.
Morocco's Justice and Development Party attempts to preserve its leading political position by presenting itself as an alternative to a system that, according to the PJD, is corrupt and morally bankrupt.
Morocco's monarchy preserves its power by maintaining a balance among the country’s 33 political parties, preventing the emergence of a strong party, and further dividing an already fragmented political elite. The author examines how the Justice and Development Party (PJD) has survived and grown under such constraints.
The responses of Morocco's monarchy to the rise of the PJD are examined for what they suggest about the monarchy’s perception of its vulnerabilities and because they help to frame the environment in which the PJD and the regime operate.
This report summarizes the key findings from a workshop on Tunisian politics and Islam the Baker Institute hosted at the Al-Kawakibi Democracy Transition Center in Tunis on Feb. 12.
