Even though it is commonly admitted that the regional dynamic of the „Arab Spring“ didn’t manifest itself in Algeria in form of mass demonstrations demanding regime change, growing and sustained popular pressure from different sectors of the population pushed President Abdelaziz Bouteflika to announce several reforms, among them anticipated legislative elections, scheduled for May 10th 2012. These elections are presented by the Algerian regime as the crowning glory of the (timid) reform process initiated in spring 2011, including the recognition of new political parties of Islamist obedience and an obligatory women’s quota on the electoral lists. This positive appreciation stands in sharp contrast to the overall skepticism and indifference of the population. Indeed, the voter turnout is expected to be as low as in previous elections (Bennadji 2007). Far from being an act of depolitisation, electoral abstention is considered to be a mode of opposition to the “pouvoir” and contestation of the political system (Dris-Ait-Hamadouche 2009) and thus as a mode of political participation (Al-Hamad 2008; Bennani-Chraibi/Filleul 2003). In the face of the anticipated weak turnout and calls by parties to boycott the elections, the regime is already making huge efforts in order to mobilize citizens, e.g. sending text messages by appealing to the citizen’s sense of duty. Drawing on data to be collected during an intensive field work trip, this paper will examine how elections are translated in small localities of the berberophone Kabylie region, which are regularly shaken by “riots”, road blockades and squatting of local administrations by exacerbated inhabitants, demanding housing, jobs, functioning infrastructures and an end of corruption and hogra – injustice. These “riots” are often labeled as being spontaneous and leaderless, but research on participation points to the family and neighborhood networks that constitute the basis for such mobilizations (Singerman 1995). Studying elections in these peripheral areas, will thus give insights into the way of how different governmental and oppositional actors – including the main Berber political parties, the FFS, the RCD as well as the representatives of the Mouvement des Arouches – negociate and compete for the votes or the boycott of a local population and their “informal” representatives, used to overcome institutionalized intermediate channels between state and society, considered as ineffective.

The Moroccan regime has successfully established its image as a democratic precursor, steadily reconstructed by observers. This positive reputation has been reinforced since the upheavals in the region in 2011, during which the king managed to be perceived as the initiator of democratic change from above. The referendum on the new constitution in July 2011 and the unscheduled elections of November 2011 are discursively framed as a proof of “real” change and interpreted as the main instruments of an enhanced form of citizens’ participation. However, so far most of the studies analyzing these events focus on the national level, concentrate on general developments, or narrate the events from urban or elite perspectives. In recent years, creative scholars have criticized research on politics for focusing on “important” people. Instead, they have introduced methodological and conceptual instruments to analyze politics “from below,” beyond analyses of national actors or institutions, beyond quantitative methods, and beyond qualitative methods which only include interviews with privileged elites. In line with these scholars, this paper provides a critical analysis of the recent Moroccan elections including the referendum on the new constitution, illustrating from a micro-perspective why and how citizens participate in the “game” of elections beyond urban centers. Following Akhil Gupta’s proposal, this paper examines participation in elections on the level where their effects should be most visible: the local, municipal level. I conducted thirty-six interviews in a medium-sized town in the Middle Atlas between October 2010 and November 2011, and used this material as the basis of my arguments. In doing so, I identify a puzzle: holding office in the Parliament or Local Council has marginal formal importance and is therefore theoretically unattractive, but political participation is still highly contested. Bringing Pierre Bourdieu’s concept of capital into play, I will discuss a probable explanation that elects, through their proximity to citizens and to other levels of power, increase their social, economic, and cultural capital. After methodological and conceptual reflections, the first paragraphs provide an overview of relevant literature and an introduction to the town of Midelt, where I conducted the interviews. This initial section is followed by a close account of elections and local politics, as well as a description of the everyday politics that take place inside the town hall. I conclude with the statement that Morocco is no exception to the tumultuous political changes sweeping other parts of the Middle East.

“Jordan is celebrating its wedding; just the groom is missing.” Um Shadi, a young woman from Ma’an, gives a short but incisive answer to my question about the importance of the upcoming parliamentary elections. Like in other Arab countries, national elections in Jordan are customarily called “national weddings.” And so, in November 2010, Jordan held an officially dubbed “national wedding” to replace the parliament dissolved the previous year by the king. Since the bread riots of April 1989, elections have become commonplace in Jordan. Despite widespread cynicism, they remain a deeply symbolic event in the periphery of Jordan and have profound political impact on power and domination structures. Taking the last parliamentary elections as an example, my paper explores participation in elections from a micro-perspective. My intention is to re-narrate the story of the 2010 parliamentary elections by re-reading their informal dimension, in an attempt to identify hidden forms of participatory politics. Based on fieldwork conducted in Ma’an over the period from October to November 2010 and March to October 2011, the paper elaborates on contestations and negotiations according to which political participation is organized and practiced, seeking to elaborate on the link between formal and informal participation forms, and their respective roles in including and excluding actors. By researching participation in elections from a micro-political perspective, the paper attempts to reveal power struggles between different agents; it provides insights into how the field of politics is reinforced, altered, or undermined by qualitatively different modes of participatory politics. In doing so, it uncovers hidden modes of politics and thus delivers alternative explanations for political practices beyond tribalism, clientelism, and patronage. This angle has been almost overlooked in relation to Jordan. I will argue that in order to grasp political realities in peripheral Jordan accurately, the social embeddedness of the institution “elections,” the permanent adaptation of social practices, and the enormous fluidity between the formal and informal realms must be considered. As the example of elections illustrates, the reinvention and transformation of informal modes of participation have altered possibilities of political participation, as well as the relationship between state and society. This manifests itself in an ambiguous process of both referring to and opposing the state due to struggles between powerful agents within the political field, as my empirical data indicate. Conceptually, the paper draws upon Migdal’s state-in-society approach and Bourdieu’s concepts of field, capital, and habitus.