EP 23 - Elizabeth R. Nugent: After Repression: How Polarization Derails Democratic Transition

Tahrir Podcast - بودكاست التحرير

Dr. Elizabeth R. Nugent is an assistant professor of politics at Princeton University. Her research focuses on the politics of authoritarianism and religion in the Middle East.

Dr. Nugent's first and award-winning book, After Repression: How Polarization Derails Democratic Transition, documents repression and polarization among the opposition in Egypt and Tunisia. She presents a theory of polarization under authoritarianism, highlighting the repression that defines these contexts. On the one hand, Hosni Mubarak's Egypt demonstrated targeted repression, which was overwhelmingly directed at the Muslim Brotherhood. Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali (ZABA)'s Tunisia, on the other hand, demonstrated widespread repression. The former and latter's repression, as put forward by Nugent, affected both transition outcomes.

In this episode, Nugent joined me to further discuss her book, After Repression, and ultimately why Egypt and Tunisia had divergent outcomes.

Don't share this episode with your local dictator.

Episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/RYCw7nfabLo

Dr. Nugent's book: https://press.princeton.edu/books/hardcover/9780691203065/after-repression

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