This book examines how opposition groups respond to the dilemma posed by authoritarian
elections in the Arab World with specific focus on Jordan and Algeria. While scholars have
investigated critical questions such as why authoritarian rulers would hold elections and
whether such elections lead to further political liberalization there has been comparatively
little work on the strategies adopted by opposition groups during authoritarian elections.
Nevertheless we know their strategic choices can have important implications for the
legitimacy of the electoral process reform democratization and post-election conflicts. This
project fills in an important gap in our understanding of opposition politics under
authoritarianism by offering an explanation for the range of strategies adopted by opposition
groups in the face of contentious elections in the Arab World.
