Publication

This policy brief discusses the implications of the Arab Spring for party politics in the Arab world. The author argues that political parties were largely irrelevant to the 2011 Arab uprisings. Without backing from parties, leaders or ideology, the Facebook generation managed to mobilize the masses, articulate their demands on the streets and project them internationally via social networking sites. The author contends that the dominance of Islamist parties is partly due to the lack of credible liberal alternatives. Reinventing Arab party politics will require a political and legal system in which elections give party representatives access to the core of power.