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Shouting in a Cage: Political Life After Authoritarian Co-Optation in North Africa

Fenner, Sofia

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Durable authoritarian rule often rests on the co-optation of challengers. The conventional story is straightforward: rulers entice opposition groups to "sell out," offering them benefits if they set aside their antiauthoritarian aspirations and become part of the system. However, co-optation does not always neutralize former adversaries, and even seemingly domesticated opponents can turn on their rulers. Co-optation does weaken opposition--but it is not as simple, reliable, or transactional as existing theories claim.

Shouting in a Cage offers new ways to understand co-optation's power and its limits by examining two co-opted parties, the Wafd Party in Egypt and the Istiqlal Party in Morocco. Sofia Fenner argues that co-optation is less a corrupt bargain than a discursive contest--a clash of competing interpretations. Co-opted parties conjure up imagined futures in which their short-term choices will lead to the realization of their long-term democratic goals. Meanwhile, other actors point to the disconnect between these parties' antiauthoritarian aspirations and their participation in authoritarian systems. Fenner demonstrates that co-opted parties come to look hypocritical precisely because they refuse to give up their oppositional commitments. Their credibility sapped, they become unappealing allies and, eventually, political afterthoughts. However, such parties retain a surprising capacity for opposition, rooted in the literal and metaphorical idea of "party as family." Based on extensive archival research and ethnographic fieldwork in North Africa, Shouting in a Cage broadens our understanding of political behavior under authoritarianism.

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Publisher

COLUMBIA UNIV PR

Bisac Major Subject

Political Science

Binding Type

Hardcover

Country Of Origin

Number Of Units

Length

9.0 Inches

Barcode Indicator

EAN

Width

6.0 Inches

Publication Date

1970-01-01

Height

0.75 Inches

ISBN 10

0231208588

Weight

1.28 Pounds

Book EAN

9780231208581

Target Audiance

Adults

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Shouting in a Cage: Political Life After Authoritarian Co-Optation in North Africa