This paper focuses on the relationship between social movements and political transformations by studying the role of coalitions and alliances. Using the Middle East as its vantage point, it discusses how social movements across the region can contribute to expand theoretical debates on this topic rather than see cases as a simple validation of existing theories.
Drawing on the literature on contentious politics, this paper seeks to situate the notion of coalition within this field, in particular in relation to existing concepts of “diffusion” and “scale shift”. While researchers have studied the mechanisms through which movements spread, leading to larger social and geographical (re)configurations of conflict, the existence of these mechanisms beyond democratic regimes is much less known.
We use a comparative historical approach to contextualise the social divides that have been salient in the Middle East region, how they have historically led to social and political fragmentation, as well as the possibilities for overcoming them during episodes of collective action. To do so, we will pay particular attention to the nature of state-building, authoritarian rule and fluctuating power relations as processes that have structured social categories, organisational and associational life, as well as ideological divides, and ultimately resulted in the fragmentation of contentious actions.
