Well-Put

Based on her work in Egypt, Jordan and Morocco, Ellen Lust-Okar argues that, in some cases, political concessions are deliberate manoeuvres to preserve the regime. That is to say, ‘authoritarianism need not sustain itself primarily through repression’, but through the structuring of government–opposition relations in ways that give privileged opposition elites incentives to join with incumbent elites in excluding other groups by denying them the power to mobilize. In some countries, at certain points, opposition groups may fear each other; in others, or at other times, they may not.

Naomi Sakr, Arab Television Today  p. 16-17