Routledge Handbook on Political Parties in the Middle East and North Africa

This comprehensive Handbook analyses the political parties and party systems across the Middle East and North Africa. Providing an in-depth, empirically grounded and novel study of political parties, the volume focuses on a region where they have been traditionally and often erroneously dismissed. The book is divided into five sections, examining:the trajectories of Islamist, Salafi, leftist, liberal, nationalist, and personalistic parties drawing from different countries;the role political parties play in authoritarian and semi-authoritarian countries;the centrality of political parties in democratic or democratising settings;the relationship between parties and specific social constituencies, ranging from women to youth to tribes and sects; andthe policy positions of parties on a number of issues, including neo-liberal economics, identity, foreign policy and the role of violence.

This wide-ranging and systematic analysis is a key resource for students and scholars interested in party politics, democratization and authoritarianism, and the Middle East and North Africa.