ABSTRACT
Authoritarian states often establish membership-based associations to channel popular grievances and to engage in mass mobilization. Across the MENA, state-controlled, ‘corporatist’ associations frequently co-exist alongside less state- controlled and more pluralist networks and associations. Scholars argue that such heterogeneity in the modes of state control explains authoritarian adaptiveness and resilience.
Can corporatist associations contribute to the expansion of civil society and democratization? I focus on one mechanism by which corporatist union leaders might become agents of civil society: coalition-formation between corporatist associations. Using the case of labour and students unions in the Islamic Republic of Iran during the 1990s and early 2000s, I argue that threats and political opportunities can incentivize corporatist associations to ally against allied incumbent elites. In turn, such coalitions can prefigure broader alliances with civil society. The article concludes with a brief review of recent mobilizations in the Middle East and North Africa structured around coalitions between state-controlled associations and civil society.
