Liberalization and Deliberalization in Jordan (original) (raw)
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In 1989, with the first Palestinian intifada (uprising) raging just across the Jordan River in the West Bank, domestic discontent spilling into his own streets, and his country's finances in tatters, Jordan's King Hussein (r. 1953-99) began taking a series of extraordinary steps toward political opening. He ended repression, called new elections to replace the National Assembly that he had dissolved in 1988, and forged a national pact that put Jordan at the forefront of liberalization in the Arab world. As the late king's son and designated successor Abdallah II faces a similar situation more than a decade later, however, the regime is nearing the completion of a full circle back to martial law.
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The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan has often been regarded as a case of ‘soft’ authoritarianism, or as a ‘hybrid’ regime. I argue, however, that Jordan’s hybrid system might be even more accurately regarded as a perpetually liberalising autocracy, in which the cycles of reform are themselves constant. The state-controlled reform process, in short, is itself the point, not the never-achieved end goal of complete reform or liberalisation. Jordan signals constant movement and micro levels of change, in order to essentially stay the same. There is constant movement, but not necessarily forward movement, nor necessarily meaningful change. This chapter examines both continuities and changes in authoritarian practices in Jordan, and in resistance to those practices. Long before the Arab Spring, Jordan relied on many traditional approaches to maintaining the ruling regime: rent distribution, elite co-optation, minimal coercion, and always a heavy reliance on international allies. But with renewed social and political mobilisation across the country during and long after the era of the Arab uprisings, Jordan added restrictions to news media, monitored social media, and emphasised both old and new forms of ‘red lines’ marking the limits of acceptable political activism. This chapter examines new and old mechanisms and micro-practices of authoritarian control, reform and resistance in the Hashemite Kingdom.
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