ABSTRACT
This chapter traces the emergence, evolution, and dissolution of single parties in the Arab World, focusing mainly on the experiences of Egypt and Tunisia. The first section discusses the emergence of single-party organisations by contrasting the external mobilisation of the Tunisian ruling party with the internal mobilisation of its counterpart in Egypt. The following section then traces party transformation. It illustrates the top-down, elite-driven nature of the transition to multipartyism and suggests that this helped sustain regime dominance. The last empirical section discusses the rupture which came about with the dissolution of hegemonic parties in Egypt and Tunisia. It shows that the influence of old ruling party cadres is more formalised in the context of Tunisia’s democratic transition than in Egypt’s authoritarian regression. The concluding section reflects on the state of the art in the study of Middle Eastern ruling parties and suggests avenues for further research.
