Local Governance, Service Provision and Social Cohesion in the Arab World

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

Local governance in the Middle East and North Africa has become increasingly central in the last decades: the Arab uprisings highlighted local governance failures, subsequent decentralization processes expanded local government roles, and -- in many areas -- refugee crises put increased pressures on municipalities. Despite its importance, we have relatively little understanding of the nature and sources of local governance, their relation to service provision and social cohesion, or how to situate these findings in broader theoretical literature (For important steps in understanding municipal governments, see Clark 2017; Clark, Delmasso and Lust 2019, and Bergh 2018).

This panel aims to address this gap. It explores variations in the nature of local governance and service provision, as well as prospects for social cohesion at the subnational level. The papers utilize a variety of theoretical perspectives, methodological approaches, and research sites. Focusing on socio-economic drivers of individual-level preferences, Blackman, Clark, and Sasmaz use individual and candidate surveys to provide insight into election congruence between candidates and constituents in Tunisia’s elections, with an emphasis on the impact that gender and age play in determining local priorities. Contributions by Jöst and Kao, and by Kao and Mousa, focus on community-level drivers. Jöst and Kao utilise field experiments to demonstrate how socioeconomic inequalities affect the propensity for collective action and participation in community initiatives in Tunisia. Meanwhile, Kao and Mousa employ focus group experiments in Jordan to study power inequality between refugees and natives and its overall impact on social cohesion and civic participation. Finally, Parreira centers her contribution on party-level drivers of service provision. Employing interviews, phone surveys, and municipal election data, she considers the impact political parties emerging from conflicts have on both party competition and public goods provision in Lebanon. Taken together, these contributions lend insight into the factors associated with governance, service provision, and social cohesion in the Arab World, while engaging with external theoretical literature, providing important contributions to our understanding of these issues, within the Arab world and beyond.


Bergh, Sylvia, (2017). Democracy and development in Morocco: Local governance and participation in North Africa. London; New York: I.B. Tauris.

Clark, Janine N., (2018). Local politics in Jordan and Morocco: Strategies of centralization and decentralization. New York: Columbia University Press.

Clark, Janine N., Emanuela Delmasso and Ellen Lust (2019). “Not the Only Game in Town: Explaining changes in municipal councils in post-revolutionary Tunisia” Democratization; Vol 26, no.8, pp. 1362-81.

Sub Unit

• Division 11: Comparative Politics

Individual Presentations

• Poverty & Participation: The Role of Social Ties Across Individuals and Contexts - Kristen Kao, University of Gothenburg; Prisca Jöst, University of Konstanz

• Local Public Goods Provision under Party Cartel Rule: Evidence from Lebanon - Christiana Moreira Parreira, Princeton University

• Building Bridges? Intergroup Contact, Power Status, and Coexistence in Jordan - Salma Mousa, Stanford University; Kristen Kao, University of Gothenburg

• Local Political Priorities and Representation in Tunisia’s Municipal Elections - Alexandra Domike Blackman, Cornell University; Julia Clark, University of California, San Diego; Aytuğ Şaşmaz, Stanford University

Chair

• Steven Brooke University of Wisconsin- Madison

Discussants

• Daniel Masterson University of California, Santa Barbara

• Melani Cammett Harvard University