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Summary
Explains how the Jordanian monarchy has survived economic crisis and regional political instability.
Weaving together accounts of historical developments, cultural elements, economic factors, and regional and international dynamics, Russell E. Lucas explores how the monarchy in Jordan survived economic crisis and regional political instability during the 1990s. Lucas analyzes the factors behind the successful liberalization and deliberalization of laws regulating political parties, the parliament, and the press that helped preserve the monarchy. These institutional survival strategies co-opted the opposition, kept it divided, and reinforced the unity of the regime's coalition of supporters. The author also compares survival strategies in Jordan with those of Morocco, Kuwait, Iran, and Egypt to explain the surprising durability of authoritarian regimes in the Middle East.
“Lucas provides a useful history of the arc of the liberalization experience.” — Journal of Palestine Studies
“…Lucas makes a significant contribution to understanding Jordanian politics as well as the stability of authoritarianism. He has turned our attention to the role that these institutions play and provided a thorough analysis of Jordanian institutional reform.”— Middle East Journal
"The author reveals the complex institutional dynamic that has kept the Jordanian regime in power. He does this very cleverly by seamlessly weaving several factors into his basic argument explaining how the regime manipulates core institutions. This allows the reader to think not only about other authoritarian states but bridges what is typically a huge chasm between the study of democratic and nondemocratic states. All regimes, democratic or not, manipulate these same institutions." — Jill Crystal, author of Oil and Politics in the Gulf: Rulers and Merchants in Kuwait and Qatar, Updated Edition
"Lucas makes a significant and important contribution to the political science literature on Jordan. This is, to the best of my knowledge, the first book to use a political institution approach to analyze regime survival in Middle Eastern monarchies." — Scott Greenwood, California State University at San Marcos
Russell E. Lucas is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International and Area Studies at the University of Oklahoma at Norman.
Table of Contents
List of Tables
Acknowledgments
Note on Translation and Transliteration
1. Institutions and the Politics of Survival
2. Regime-Led State Building in Jordan: 1921–1988
3. Economic Crisis and Political Liberalization
4. Institutionalizing Political Liberalization
5. Managing Peace and Its Discontents
6. Normalization and Structural Adjustment
7. Press Restrictions and the 1997 Elections
8. A New King and a New Intifada
9. Institutions and the Politics of Survival: An Appraisal
