The Local Politics of Service Provision in the Middle East and North Africa (Pre-Recorded)

Session Submission Type: In-Person Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Scholars have increasingly turned to the study of local politics to understand patterns of social service provision and electoral competition. In the Middle East and North Africa, sub-national politics and political actors play a key role in determining broader patterns of institutional durability and change. The 2011 uprisings throughout much of the region have been followed by subsequent civil conflict, re-autocratization, and population displacement, all of which have varied widely at a local level.

To that end, this panel explores the local causes and consequences of variation in service provision in the Middle East. Empirically, the papers utilize a broad range of evidence, including geolocated residential data, local elections results, local budgetary data, qualitative interviews, and extensive fieldwork in Turkey, Jordan, and Lebanon. In Turkey, Bozcaga shows that voters react to the provision of certain types of services differently, depending on their excludability and the social composition of the local electorate. In Jordan, Dhingra demonstrates that local governments are better poised to handle influxes of refugees where elites are able to bypass the central state and work directly with international actors. In Lebanon, Parreira similarly shows that local governments function more efficiently when they are affiliated with governing political parties, but that this also impedes voters from holding local elites accountable. Finally, also in Lebanon, Stedem demonstrates that parties’ local organizational structure affects their willingness to provide private security to supporters. Collectively, these papers shed new light on the local dimensions of distributive and electoral politics in the Middle East, with broader implications for developing contexts.

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Individual Presentations

• Subnational Variations in Electoral Returns to Local Public Goods - Tugba Bozcaga, King's College London

• Refugees, International Aid, and Local Service Provision in Jordan - Reva Dhingra, Harvard University

• Local Governance and Center-Periphery Relations in Lebanon - Christiana Moreira Parreira, Princeton University

• Political Parties and Non-State Security Provision in Lebanon - Kelly Stedem, Roanoke College

Chair

• Melani Cammett Harvard University

Discussant

• Lama Mourad Carleton University