Tensions between Democratic and Autocratic Trends in Contemporary MENA: The Persistence of the Authoritarian Legacy

The political trajectories of the Middle East and North Africa since 2011 have produced very different combinations of democratic opening, authoritarian persistence, and political reversal. Tunisia experienced democratic transition followed by authoritarian retrenchment; Egypt underwent authoritarian deepening; Morocco and Jordan combined political reform with strong executive power; while Lebanon and Syria followed trajectories shaped by sectarian politics, conflict, and regime survival. Yet these differences share an important feature: the persistence of authoritarian legacies and their continuing influence on institutions, political practices, and understandings of political order (Anderson, 2013; Szmolka & Cavatorta, 2024).
Authoritarian legacies are not simply institutional inheritances. They are also reproduced, reinterpreted, and contested through political narratives. Narratives of stability, reform, security, sovereignty, and national unity can legitimise established political orders, while competing narratives of democracy, citizenship, and popular sovereignty challenge them. These dynamics are visible across very different political settings. In Tunisia, political dissatisfaction and the fragmentation of electoral competition contributed to the rise of populist forces and the subsequent authoritarian drift (Govantes, Alfonso, & Hernando de Larramendi, 2026). In Jordan, narratives of gradual reform have coexisted with the preservation of authoritarian structures (Schuetze, 2019). In Syria, competing narratives of fear, resistance, and political order have shaped how citizens experienced and responded to authoritarian rule (Pearlman, 2016). In Morocco, the regime's capacity to combine reformist discourse with established structures of political control similarly illustrates the adaptability of authoritarian legacies (Desrues, 2013).
Against this background, this panel examines how authoritarian legacies persist, are narrated, and are contested in contemporary MENA. It brings together contributions addressing three related questions: how authoritarian legacies shape institutions and political practices; how regimes and political actors construct narratives that reproduce or challenge inherited political orders; and how citizens, opposition movements, and civil society respond to these competing narratives. Contributions on the Maghreb and Mashreq are welcome. The panel seeks to explain why authoritarian legacies remain politically consequential, how their meanings change across different contexts, and how they shape contemporary struggles over political authority, legitimacy, and democratic change.