The process of repression is outsourced to the citizenry who indirectly secure absolute power for the regime. It is a vicious cycle with the masses being both the victims as well as beneficiaries of repression.
Awaited for more than two years, the first round of parliamentary elections in Egypt has bluntly confirmed the widespread disillusion of many voters about the country's political system.
Arab autocrats’ power depends on more than physical coercion or the rise of Islamist extremism: it has deeper roots in the role of civil society, orientalism, and identity politics.
