The reality that the vast majority of the Arab regimes are strongly authoritarian in character, even in the aftermath of the Arab Spring, have led many to assume that institutions and processes such as political parties and legislative elections are without much importance. While it is unquestionably true that legislative elections only play a minor role in determining who governs in quite a number of Arab regimes, elections should certainly not be ignored as they tell us a great deal about the nature of a country’s political system, particularly the party system and its components, as well as about continuity and change within the party system. This article analyzes legislative and presidential election data from across the Arab world with a view to assess continuity and change, particularly after the eruption of the Arab Spring. At the core of this analysis are two issues: party system change and the character of the new components of the various party systems. With regards to the discussion of the nature and extent of party system change, the analysis centres on indicators such as the effective number of parties, electoral volatility, and the performance of the top parties. On the topic of the new components of the region’s party systems following the Arab Spring, the analysis focuses on questions relating to the frequency of such new parties, their origins (internally vs externally created; fusions vs fissions), their ideological orientation, and their size. Are they, in other words, relevant, and do they appear to indicate democratic political change? Given the comparative nature of the analysis, and the broad span of cases, a final objective is, of course, to determine whether any patterns can be identified across the region, as well as the strength of any such patterns.