The experience of Arab uprisings since 2011 offers an opportunity critically to evaluate patterns of authoritarian governance in the Arab world and the transformations they have undergone since the outbreak of mass protests in early 2011. Specifically, the paper will assess the governance experiences of this period to assess competing claims about the causes of authoritarian resilience and of the outbreak of mass protests that continue to present a significant challenge to autocratic regimes across the Middle East. Drawing on evidence from a range of cases, including Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Jordan, and the GCC, the paper will focus on the economic policy responses of Arab governments to protest movements animated, in part, by deep-seated economic grievances. It will use the political economy of regime responses to mass political movements to shed important light on the underlying dynamics of authoritarian governance in the Arab world since 2011, and what theoretical conclusions we can draw from an assessment of these dynamics.