Matt Gordner | University of Toronto (original) (raw)

Papers by Matt Gordner

Routledge eBooks, Dec 30, 2020

Middle East : Topics & Arguments, 2016

This article examines the changing role of cyberactivists before and after the Jasmine Revolution... more This article examines the changing role of cyberactivists before and after the Jasmine Revolution through case studies of three prominent figures: Houssem Aoudi (Cogite, Wasaibi), Sami Ben Gharbia (Nawaat.org), and Haythem el Mekki (MosaiqueFM, Attessia TV). The main argument presented here is that the attainment of freedom of the Internet and the success of the revolt created new opportunities for formal political involvement for the cyberactivists as they transited from dissidents under the Ben Ali regime to citizen-participants of a nascent democratic order. A subsidiary argument is that a new generation of Tunisian leadership came to the fore of Tunisia’s private and public spheres to advance the stated aims of the revolution, including inter alia combating unemployment, securing civil liberties, stemming corruption, and the ever deepening of pro-democracy reforms.

spire Journal of Law, Politics, and Societies, 2008

This article addresses of some the shortcomings in the literature on “Islam/ism and democracy” th... more This article addresses of some the shortcomings in the literature on “Islam/ism and democracy” that result from questioning whether Islam/ism and democracy are compatible. I argue, contrary to the compatibility paradigm, that what is important is how Muslims believe in and practice democracy. I examine “post-Islamist” discourses and politics as potential democratizing movements that support an admixture of rights-based claims and Islamic legitimacy.

Participedia, 2019

T7arek’s official mission is to ‘stimulate citizen engagement.’ Informally, however, the more pro... more T7arek’s official mission is to ‘stimulate citizen engagement.’ Informally, however, the more prominent aim is to educate citizens on the inclusive use of ‘horizontality’ as a mechanism for organization and decision-making.

Participedia, 2017

In Tunisia, unemployment generally, and unemployment of youth who are not enrolled in education, ... more In Tunisia, unemployment generally, and unemployment of youth who are not enrolled in education, employment, or training (NEETs) in particular, is a severe social, economic, and cultural problem. Variance is observable along socio-economic, geographic, and gender indices.

The UDC is the oldest and most important organization that groups unemployed persons in Tunisia under one umbrella. Its slogan: “Work, Freedom, National Dignity” dates back to 2006. It also became the master frame of the Tunisian uprising, also known as the ‘Jasmine Revolution.’ The purpose of the UDC was to fill the vacuum in representation created between the UGET (L'Union générale des étudiants de Tunisie) student’s union and the UGTT (L'Union générale tunisienne du travail) labor union in Tunisia. The creation of the UDC responded to a significant threat to local, independent, and unsanctioned groups dedicated to unemployed graduates in the country. Namely, it was often the case that regime officials would arrest one group without the knowledge of the others. This left all groups vulnerable and without recourse to legal action or counsel. Prior to the organization’s establishment, there was no formal leadership structure or communication strategy for channeling concerns or efforts over the rights of unemployed graduates in Tunisia.

Upon formalizing the umbrella organization in 2006 (though still illegal), the regional offices of the UDC were able to act in concert with one another and with the support of the UGET, UGTT, LTDH (Ligue Tunisienne pour la Défense des Droits de l'Homme), Tunisian Communist Worker’s Party, and the Tunisian Bar Association, among others, which greatly strengthened their organizational capacity and impact. Thus, upon the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid in December, 2010—the single act often attributed as the catalyst to the ‘Jasmine Revolution’ and ‘Arab Spring’—the UDC were one of the first groups to carry out organized protests throughout Tunisia.

Participedia, 2017

After a century of land disputes, the people of Jemna reclaimed their land during the “Jasmine Re... more After a century of land disputes, the people of Jemna reclaimed their land during the “Jasmine Revoluton” of 2010-2011. Two days before the January 14 ouster of longstanding dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, the youth of Jemna occupied the date plantation long viewed as a symbol of colonialism and corruption and, along with elders from the town, established the ‘Association for the Protection of Jemna’s Oasis’ (APJO). Rather than acquiescing to the demands of locals to have full autonomy over their land, however, the Tunisian state has employed several tactics to maintain a measure of control over the APJO and its resources, including freezing its financial accounts and threatening the association and its buyers with fines and sanctions. In spite of the vast increase in productivity and impressive redistributive mechanisms that Jemna has put in place to benefit the region through the profits of its date yields (that pale in comparison to the productive capacity of previous operators), the government refuses to allocate ownership of the land to the APJO. Instead, the state continues to offer arrangements that the town of Jemna considers inimical to its project of local autonomy.

Jemna thus serves as an example of successful grass-roots mobilization and cooperative economics. As exemplar, the APJO also threatens the state’s claims to be able to provide for its citizens at a time when the legitimacy and confidence in state institutions and political parties is at an all-time low (Yahya, 2016). The ‘case’ of Jemna is in the spotlight. If reached, a future resolution will undoubtedly be considered as a precedent for other towns in the south of Tunisia making similar land claims. The cooperative model may also stand as a challenge to Tunisia’s decades long neo-liberal turn.

Participedia, 2019

Manich Msema7 is a Tunisian youth-led social movement that resisted an anti-reconciliation bills ... more Manich Msema7 is a Tunisian youth-led social movement that resisted an anti-reconciliation bills put forward by the Ennahda-Nidaa Tounes-led government to provide a general amnesty to former regime officials and bureaucrats accused of corruption under the Ben Ali government.

Critical Epistemologies of Global Politics, 2017

This chapter examines how the Islamic State challenges the Euro-centric Westphalian internationa... more This chapter examines how the Islamic State challenges the Euro-centric
Westphalian international order. Starting with a critique of the colonial nature
of the international State system, Gordner refutes the notion that the regions held
by the Islamic State are in fact ‘ungoverned.’ He shows how indeed the
Islamic State offers many key characteristics of a State (such as regular
income, military power, unified ideology), except for sharing the Westphalian
notion of borders and exclusive sovereignty within the territory specified by
these. Indeed, the Islamic State is marked by ‘the erasure of the border’ and
its attempt to create a ‘transnational Islamic polity,’ thus questioning the
fundamental tenets of the Westphalian international order. The Islamic State
‘refus[es] to recognize the sovereignty of other states’ in terms of proposing a
radically different model of the state rather than simply in terms of conquest
and taking control of other states. It therewith undermines the reification of
the nation-state model as the ‘natural’ model of human political organization
and forcefully questions the centrality of both the state and the status of
borders in IR.

In-Spire Journal of Law, Politics and Societies, 2008

This article examines the validity of claims to a ‘French exception’ regarding immigration and no... more This article examines the validity of claims to a ‘French exception’ regarding immigration and normalisation policies for France’s growing North African population. While many laud France’s efforts to cultivate citizenship based on a notion of French civic neutrality, a prodigious amount of scholarship claims, to the contrary, that the French state prejudicially supports the breach of Human Rights and limits on pluralism by removing what it sees as ‘ostentatious’ religious symbols in the public sphere that are claimed to pose a security threat to France’s internal stability. The Headscarf Affair is utilised to illustrate the untenable demands of ‘ideal citizenship’ that the French exception attempts to cultivate, namely one that requires the divesting of previously held cultural and religious beliefs and values in favour of adopting a French historical narrative that includes, among other things, a favorable view of the ‘colonizing mission’ of North African states during the French colonial period.

Democracy and Society, 2017

Dear Students, I am writing to offer my thoughts on the current state of politics in the United S... more Dear Students, I am writing to offer my thoughts on the current state of politics in the United States and how we might respond in our own Master's program. I am particularly worried, as I am sure many of you are, about the genesis, nature, and direction of the Trump Presidency. I should say at the outset that I have pondered for many days whether or not I should write this letter. As Director of Democracy and Governance Studies at Georgetown University, I have worked to foster rigorous academic standards, objective inquiry and fact-based analysis. My job, along with that of our Associate Director Jennifer Dresden-and all of our talented faculty-is not to promote a political agenda or ideology, but to impart the analytical tools necessary for you to make your difference in a vast range of fields and endeavors. Your capacity to make your mark depends in part on having professors who do not preach but rather teach. I have tried to remain loyal to that proposition, and it is precisely for this reason that I hesitated to write this note.

Illumine: Journal of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, 2010

This article addresses of some the shortcomings in the literature on "Islam/ism and democracy" th... more This article addresses of some the shortcomings in the literature on "Islam/ism and democracy" that result from questioning whether Islam/ism and democracy are compatible. I argue, contrary to the compatibility paradigm, that what is important is how Muslims believe in and practice democracy. I examine "post-Islamist" discourses and politics as potential democratizing movements that support an admixture of rights-based claims and Islamic legitimacy. In light of recent popular uprisings in Yemen and Egypt that have followed from the successful ouster of the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia, this article highlights the democratic attitudes throughout the Muslim majority states and the Middle East in particular. I conclude that despite fears of Islamist accessions to power, Islamist participation should be invited as a method of cultivating and furthering democratic political cultures in the Middle East and throughout Muslim majority states.

Afkar White Paper Series, 2019

While the so-called “Arab Spring” was an awakening for the region’s people and its powerholders, ... more While the so-called “Arab Spring” was an awakening for the region’s people and its
powerholders, the events of 2010-2011 changed the trajectory of innovation and
entrepreneurship only slightly and in specific, local contexts. This paper endeavours to
compare Egypt, Tunisia, and the UAE with three major objectives in mind.
First, the paper reviews the history of the region, and in particular the reasons for and
impact of its late and uneven development. Second, it demonstrates that the general
business and innovation trends across the region remained mostly unaffected by the
“Arab Spring.” Drawing upon the Doing Business World Bank data, we find that among
the three countries under study, the UAE has made steady improvements, while Egypt
and Tunisia have remained relatively constant. Examining each case further, it appears
as though government support for entrepreneurialism alone only goes so far, though the
conditions for doing business are contingent on the removal of government constraints.
Civil society (Tunisia) and the private sector (UAE and Egypt) are also important actors
albeit not in quite the same way.
For the UAE, “angel investors” have made a significant difference, though civil society
has yet to find its footing. In Tunisia, civil society was a driving force behind recent
achievements, perhaps notably vis-à-vis the Startup Act. In Egypt, civil society remains
closed under the Sisi regime, yet some initiatives by the private sector provide a silver
lining to its post-2011 context and have influenced the government to pay new attention
to the private sector as integral to its economic (and political) vitality and survival.
Notably, SMEs kept the engine of the Egyptian economy going during its uprisings when
the government was mostly shut down. Finally, the paper suggests that Tunisia may
soon prove to be an outlier in terms of the new opportunities posed by the “revolution”
in both the altered state of corruption combined with government and civil society
attention paid to the new entrepreneurial landscape.

Middle East -Topics & Arguments, 2016

This article examines the changing role of cyberactivists before and after the Jasmine Revolution... more This article examines the changing role of cyberactivists before and after the Jasmine Revolution through case studies of three prominent figures: Houssem Aoudi (Cogite, Wasaibi), Sami Ben Gharbia (Nawaat.org), and Haythem el Mekki (MosaiqueFM, Attessia TV). The main argument presented here is that the attainment of freedom of the Internet and the success of the revolt created new opportunities for formal political involvement for the cyberactivists as they transited from dissidents under the Ben Ali regime to citizen-participants of a nascent democratic order. A subsidiary argument is that a new generation of Tunisian leadership came to the fore of Tunisia’s private and public spheres to advance the stated aims of the revolution, including inter alia combating unemployment, securing civil liberties, stemming corruption, and the ever deepening of pro-democracy reforms.

POMEPS STUDIES 36 Youth Politics in the Middle East and North Africa, 2019

Youth politics in Tunisia today can be understood through a differentiation between ‘civil’ socie... more Youth politics in Tunisia today can be understood through a differentiation between ‘civil’ society in the form of non-governmental organizations from two ‘contentious’ cadres: ‘land/labor’ protests, on the one hand, such as Weinou el Petrol (‘Where Is The Petrol’), and ‘leftist’ movements, such as Manich Msema7 (‘We Will Not Forgive’) and Fech Nestanaou (‘What Are We Waiting For’), on the other. Membership and participation among these three forms of political participation are often shared, and activities sometimes overlap around common struggles for “Work, Freedom, and National Dignity,” constituting what Manheim labels a distinct ‘generational unit.’ But the divisions among this trifurcation of civil society are significant, particularly in the ways in which geography determines and shapes grievances. Differences in their tactical approaches, local vs. national scope, and organizational and decision-making strategies are also prevalent, and oftentimes follow, from this geographic distinction. Significantly, these differences militate against unified political action and often play into the hands of regime strategies to coopt and instrumentalize (civil), repress (leftist), and divide and conquer (land/labor). Opposition to the corporatist, elite-led model of democratization and neo-liberal mode of governance thus remains largely unsuccessful despite being repeatedly checked and vociferously challenged.

Routledge eBooks, Dec 30, 2020

Middle East : Topics & Arguments, 2016

This article examines the changing role of cyberactivists before and after the Jasmine Revolution... more This article examines the changing role of cyberactivists before and after the Jasmine Revolution through case studies of three prominent figures: Houssem Aoudi (Cogite, Wasaibi), Sami Ben Gharbia (Nawaat.org), and Haythem el Mekki (MosaiqueFM, Attessia TV). The main argument presented here is that the attainment of freedom of the Internet and the success of the revolt created new opportunities for formal political involvement for the cyberactivists as they transited from dissidents under the Ben Ali regime to citizen-participants of a nascent democratic order. A subsidiary argument is that a new generation of Tunisian leadership came to the fore of Tunisia’s private and public spheres to advance the stated aims of the revolution, including inter alia combating unemployment, securing civil liberties, stemming corruption, and the ever deepening of pro-democracy reforms.

spire Journal of Law, Politics, and Societies, 2008

This article addresses of some the shortcomings in the literature on “Islam/ism and democracy” th... more This article addresses of some the shortcomings in the literature on “Islam/ism and democracy” that result from questioning whether Islam/ism and democracy are compatible. I argue, contrary to the compatibility paradigm, that what is important is how Muslims believe in and practice democracy. I examine “post-Islamist” discourses and politics as potential democratizing movements that support an admixture of rights-based claims and Islamic legitimacy.

Participedia, 2019

T7arek’s official mission is to ‘stimulate citizen engagement.’ Informally, however, the more pro... more T7arek’s official mission is to ‘stimulate citizen engagement.’ Informally, however, the more prominent aim is to educate citizens on the inclusive use of ‘horizontality’ as a mechanism for organization and decision-making.

Participedia, 2017

In Tunisia, unemployment generally, and unemployment of youth who are not enrolled in education, ... more In Tunisia, unemployment generally, and unemployment of youth who are not enrolled in education, employment, or training (NEETs) in particular, is a severe social, economic, and cultural problem. Variance is observable along socio-economic, geographic, and gender indices.

The UDC is the oldest and most important organization that groups unemployed persons in Tunisia under one umbrella. Its slogan: “Work, Freedom, National Dignity” dates back to 2006. It also became the master frame of the Tunisian uprising, also known as the ‘Jasmine Revolution.’ The purpose of the UDC was to fill the vacuum in representation created between the UGET (L'Union générale des étudiants de Tunisie) student’s union and the UGTT (L'Union générale tunisienne du travail) labor union in Tunisia. The creation of the UDC responded to a significant threat to local, independent, and unsanctioned groups dedicated to unemployed graduates in the country. Namely, it was often the case that regime officials would arrest one group without the knowledge of the others. This left all groups vulnerable and without recourse to legal action or counsel. Prior to the organization’s establishment, there was no formal leadership structure or communication strategy for channeling concerns or efforts over the rights of unemployed graduates in Tunisia.

Upon formalizing the umbrella organization in 2006 (though still illegal), the regional offices of the UDC were able to act in concert with one another and with the support of the UGET, UGTT, LTDH (Ligue Tunisienne pour la Défense des Droits de l'Homme), Tunisian Communist Worker’s Party, and the Tunisian Bar Association, among others, which greatly strengthened their organizational capacity and impact. Thus, upon the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi in Sidi Bouzid in December, 2010—the single act often attributed as the catalyst to the ‘Jasmine Revolution’ and ‘Arab Spring’—the UDC were one of the first groups to carry out organized protests throughout Tunisia.

Participedia, 2017

After a century of land disputes, the people of Jemna reclaimed their land during the “Jasmine Re... more After a century of land disputes, the people of Jemna reclaimed their land during the “Jasmine Revoluton” of 2010-2011. Two days before the January 14 ouster of longstanding dictator Zine el Abidine Ben Ali, the youth of Jemna occupied the date plantation long viewed as a symbol of colonialism and corruption and, along with elders from the town, established the ‘Association for the Protection of Jemna’s Oasis’ (APJO). Rather than acquiescing to the demands of locals to have full autonomy over their land, however, the Tunisian state has employed several tactics to maintain a measure of control over the APJO and its resources, including freezing its financial accounts and threatening the association and its buyers with fines and sanctions. In spite of the vast increase in productivity and impressive redistributive mechanisms that Jemna has put in place to benefit the region through the profits of its date yields (that pale in comparison to the productive capacity of previous operators), the government refuses to allocate ownership of the land to the APJO. Instead, the state continues to offer arrangements that the town of Jemna considers inimical to its project of local autonomy.

Jemna thus serves as an example of successful grass-roots mobilization and cooperative economics. As exemplar, the APJO also threatens the state’s claims to be able to provide for its citizens at a time when the legitimacy and confidence in state institutions and political parties is at an all-time low (Yahya, 2016). The ‘case’ of Jemna is in the spotlight. If reached, a future resolution will undoubtedly be considered as a precedent for other towns in the south of Tunisia making similar land claims. The cooperative model may also stand as a challenge to Tunisia’s decades long neo-liberal turn.

Participedia, 2019

Manich Msema7 is a Tunisian youth-led social movement that resisted an anti-reconciliation bills ... more Manich Msema7 is a Tunisian youth-led social movement that resisted an anti-reconciliation bills put forward by the Ennahda-Nidaa Tounes-led government to provide a general amnesty to former regime officials and bureaucrats accused of corruption under the Ben Ali government.

Critical Epistemologies of Global Politics, 2017

This chapter examines how the Islamic State challenges the Euro-centric Westphalian internationa... more This chapter examines how the Islamic State challenges the Euro-centric
Westphalian international order. Starting with a critique of the colonial nature
of the international State system, Gordner refutes the notion that the regions held
by the Islamic State are in fact ‘ungoverned.’ He shows how indeed the
Islamic State offers many key characteristics of a State (such as regular
income, military power, unified ideology), except for sharing the Westphalian
notion of borders and exclusive sovereignty within the territory specified by
these. Indeed, the Islamic State is marked by ‘the erasure of the border’ and
its attempt to create a ‘transnational Islamic polity,’ thus questioning the
fundamental tenets of the Westphalian international order. The Islamic State
‘refus[es] to recognize the sovereignty of other states’ in terms of proposing a
radically different model of the state rather than simply in terms of conquest
and taking control of other states. It therewith undermines the reification of
the nation-state model as the ‘natural’ model of human political organization
and forcefully questions the centrality of both the state and the status of
borders in IR.

In-Spire Journal of Law, Politics and Societies, 2008

This article examines the validity of claims to a ‘French exception’ regarding immigration and no... more This article examines the validity of claims to a ‘French exception’ regarding immigration and normalisation policies for France’s growing North African population. While many laud France’s efforts to cultivate citizenship based on a notion of French civic neutrality, a prodigious amount of scholarship claims, to the contrary, that the French state prejudicially supports the breach of Human Rights and limits on pluralism by removing what it sees as ‘ostentatious’ religious symbols in the public sphere that are claimed to pose a security threat to France’s internal stability. The Headscarf Affair is utilised to illustrate the untenable demands of ‘ideal citizenship’ that the French exception attempts to cultivate, namely one that requires the divesting of previously held cultural and religious beliefs and values in favour of adopting a French historical narrative that includes, among other things, a favorable view of the ‘colonizing mission’ of North African states during the French colonial period.

Democracy and Society, 2017

Dear Students, I am writing to offer my thoughts on the current state of politics in the United S... more Dear Students, I am writing to offer my thoughts on the current state of politics in the United States and how we might respond in our own Master's program. I am particularly worried, as I am sure many of you are, about the genesis, nature, and direction of the Trump Presidency. I should say at the outset that I have pondered for many days whether or not I should write this letter. As Director of Democracy and Governance Studies at Georgetown University, I have worked to foster rigorous academic standards, objective inquiry and fact-based analysis. My job, along with that of our Associate Director Jennifer Dresden-and all of our talented faculty-is not to promote a political agenda or ideology, but to impart the analytical tools necessary for you to make your difference in a vast range of fields and endeavors. Your capacity to make your mark depends in part on having professors who do not preach but rather teach. I have tried to remain loyal to that proposition, and it is precisely for this reason that I hesitated to write this note.

Illumine: Journal of the Centre for Studies in Religion and Society, 2010

This article addresses of some the shortcomings in the literature on "Islam/ism and democracy" th... more This article addresses of some the shortcomings in the literature on "Islam/ism and democracy" that result from questioning whether Islam/ism and democracy are compatible. I argue, contrary to the compatibility paradigm, that what is important is how Muslims believe in and practice democracy. I examine "post-Islamist" discourses and politics as potential democratizing movements that support an admixture of rights-based claims and Islamic legitimacy. In light of recent popular uprisings in Yemen and Egypt that have followed from the successful ouster of the Ben Ali regime in Tunisia, this article highlights the democratic attitudes throughout the Muslim majority states and the Middle East in particular. I conclude that despite fears of Islamist accessions to power, Islamist participation should be invited as a method of cultivating and furthering democratic political cultures in the Middle East and throughout Muslim majority states.

Afkar White Paper Series, 2019

While the so-called “Arab Spring” was an awakening for the region’s people and its powerholders, ... more While the so-called “Arab Spring” was an awakening for the region’s people and its
powerholders, the events of 2010-2011 changed the trajectory of innovation and
entrepreneurship only slightly and in specific, local contexts. This paper endeavours to
compare Egypt, Tunisia, and the UAE with three major objectives in mind.
First, the paper reviews the history of the region, and in particular the reasons for and
impact of its late and uneven development. Second, it demonstrates that the general
business and innovation trends across the region remained mostly unaffected by the
“Arab Spring.” Drawing upon the Doing Business World Bank data, we find that among
the three countries under study, the UAE has made steady improvements, while Egypt
and Tunisia have remained relatively constant. Examining each case further, it appears
as though government support for entrepreneurialism alone only goes so far, though the
conditions for doing business are contingent on the removal of government constraints.
Civil society (Tunisia) and the private sector (UAE and Egypt) are also important actors
albeit not in quite the same way.
For the UAE, “angel investors” have made a significant difference, though civil society
has yet to find its footing. In Tunisia, civil society was a driving force behind recent
achievements, perhaps notably vis-à-vis the Startup Act. In Egypt, civil society remains
closed under the Sisi regime, yet some initiatives by the private sector provide a silver
lining to its post-2011 context and have influenced the government to pay new attention
to the private sector as integral to its economic (and political) vitality and survival.
Notably, SMEs kept the engine of the Egyptian economy going during its uprisings when
the government was mostly shut down. Finally, the paper suggests that Tunisia may
soon prove to be an outlier in terms of the new opportunities posed by the “revolution”
in both the altered state of corruption combined with government and civil society
attention paid to the new entrepreneurial landscape.

Middle East -Topics & Arguments, 2016

This article examines the changing role of cyberactivists before and after the Jasmine Revolution... more This article examines the changing role of cyberactivists before and after the Jasmine Revolution through case studies of three prominent figures: Houssem Aoudi (Cogite, Wasaibi), Sami Ben Gharbia (Nawaat.org), and Haythem el Mekki (MosaiqueFM, Attessia TV). The main argument presented here is that the attainment of freedom of the Internet and the success of the revolt created new opportunities for formal political involvement for the cyberactivists as they transited from dissidents under the Ben Ali regime to citizen-participants of a nascent democratic order. A subsidiary argument is that a new generation of Tunisian leadership came to the fore of Tunisia’s private and public spheres to advance the stated aims of the revolution, including inter alia combating unemployment, securing civil liberties, stemming corruption, and the ever deepening of pro-democracy reforms.

POMEPS STUDIES 36 Youth Politics in the Middle East and North Africa, 2019

Youth politics in Tunisia today can be understood through a differentiation between ‘civil’ socie... more Youth politics in Tunisia today can be understood through a differentiation between ‘civil’ society in the form of non-governmental organizations from two ‘contentious’ cadres: ‘land/labor’ protests, on the one hand, such as Weinou el Petrol (‘Where Is The Petrol’), and ‘leftist’ movements, such as Manich Msema7 (‘We Will Not Forgive’) and Fech Nestanaou (‘What Are We Waiting For’), on the other. Membership and participation among these three forms of political participation are often shared, and activities sometimes overlap around common struggles for “Work, Freedom, and National Dignity,” constituting what Manheim labels a distinct ‘generational unit.’ But the divisions among this trifurcation of civil society are significant, particularly in the ways in which geography determines and shapes grievances. Differences in their tactical approaches, local vs. national scope, and organizational and decision-making strategies are also prevalent, and oftentimes follow, from this geographic distinction. Significantly, these differences militate against unified political action and often play into the hands of regime strategies to coopt and instrumentalize (civil), repress (leftist), and divide and conquer (land/labor). Opposition to the corporatist, elite-led model of democratization and neo-liberal mode of governance thus remains largely unsuccessful despite being repeatedly checked and vociferously challenged.