Abstract
This paper addresses the question of how service delivery (SD) affects state legitimacy (SL) and conflict (C) in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, drawing particularly on frameworks that move beyond a state-centric approach. Focusing on the majority-Arab countries of MENA, the paper aims to: (1) offer a preliminary explanation of the distinctiveness of this region in light of some of the main findings of the introductory paper by the lead guest editor Timo Kivimäki and (2) explore the potential of a social policy perspective in explaining the relationship between SD, SL and C. This is achieved by combining research insights acquired through extensive qualitative social policy research in the MENA region with a re-reading of the existing literature on SD, SL and C. To support a comprehensive re-examination of the issues at hand, the paper also draws on the 5th Wave of the Arab Barometer micro-level survey (ABS) on Arab citizen perceptions of socio-economic conditions in their countries and macro-level social welfare expenditure data from the World Bank World Development Indicators (WDI). By bringing insights from the social policy literature on the MENA region into conversation with broader research on the relationship between SD, SL and C, we identify several distinctive features of service delivery in the MENA context and examine their implications for state legitimacy and conflict.
Highlights
Research on state legitimacy and conflict has become increasingly focused on the role of service delivery
Recent findings from the literature on state legitimacy and conflict have found that the link between SL, service delivery (SD) and conflict is non-linear, and that liberal frameworks focused on formal politics are of limited use to understand state legitimacy in Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
Research on the political marketplace has emphasised the importance of external revenues as well as regional and international interventions in explaining the relationship between SL and conflict, factors that are salient in the MENA context
Summary
Research on state legitimacy and conflict has become increasingly focused on the role of service delivery. This provides scope to understand the demand side of social services. To understand the connection between conflict and state legitimacy, it is important to (1) disaggregate the state and to examine the role of both state and non-state actors, (2) to look beyond the state level and try to understand sub-national variation and how narratives about the state and services are different across groups This is important in consociational systems (such as in Lebanon) or countries where political order depends on patronage-based legitimacy
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