The Emergence of Non-Violent Political Alternatives

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 6 analyzes the emergence of non-violent political alternatives. The chapter argues that the emergence of alternatives is contingent on the interactions of jihadi groups with the Islamist social movement and on the credibility of non-violent political alternatives. But jihadi groups do not necessarily join the political process when authoritarian regimes democratize. A consensual decision to create a political party is contingent on the ability of jihadi groups to take consensual decisions at the leadership level while maintaining the loyalty of their members, which in the case of the IG and JG was rooted in these groups’ institutionalized collective group identities.