Chapter 1 focuses on constitution-making and constitutional reform processes. After providing a brief historical overview of the four waves of constitution-drafting in the Arab world, this chapter examines closely the post-Arab Spring constitution-making and constitutional reform processes, focusing on the following elements: The body in charge of drafting the constitution and the role played by the ruling regime (“bottom-up” vs. “top-down” processes); the degree of openness and transparency of the process; the duration of the process; the role played by political parties; the role of civil society; the role played by external actors; the influence of previous domestic constitutions and their “reactivation”; and the influence of foreign constitutional models. The chapter shows that the vast majority of these processes were characterized by major flaws and shortcomings, a fact that had a negative impact on the legitimacy and sense of ownership of these texts and, ultimately, on the transition processes as a whole. Although it should not be idealized, the process that led to the adoption of the 2014 Tunisian Constitution was to a large extent a positive exception.

This chapter offers a critical rereading of Omani work history that foregrounds labour, flipping the perspective from the view of industry and capital to the human experience. Through examining the history of labour governance and resistance in Oman, it argues that the contemporary governance, regulatory, and resistance environment for labour have clear lineages in the past. First, it traverses three key legacies governing work and workers – the colonial modes of circulating, disciplining, and classifying labour, the oil industry’s human resources policies, and the management of labour in national economic planning. Second, the chapter traces discourses about workers and how these discourses and prejudices are persistent technologies of governance that influence practices and assessments of employment and development. Together, this reveals a genealogy of practice and discourse underpinned by racial capitalism that have shaped work life in Oman and the Gulf more widely. Finally, the chapter discusses the various forms of contestation to these practices over time, including connections to worker agitation and mobilisation, strike action, and connections with antiimperialist movements.

How were post-Arab Spring constitutions drafted? What are the most significant elements of continuity and change within the new constitutional texts? What purposes are these texts designed to serve? To what extent have constitutional provisions been enforced? Have the principles of constitutionalism been strengthened compared to the past? These are some of the key questions Francesco Biagi addresses. Constitution-Building After the Arab Spring: A Comparative Perspective examines seven national experiences of constitution-building in the Arab world following the 2011 uprisings, namely those of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, and Jordan. This interdisciplinary book, based largely on the author’s own work and research in the region, compares these seven national experiences through four analytical frameworks: constitution-drafting and constitutional reform processes; separation of powers and forms of government; constitutional justice; and religion, women, and non-Muslims within the framework of citizenship.

This chapter begins with two contrasting tales of state-managed reburials and then mainly focuses on Jerusalem’s Mount Herzl, the national cemetery. The recent process whereby Mount Herzl and the adjoining Holocaust Memorial are joined together is described, and the chapter reviews the multiple divisions and conflicts that presently characterize Israeli society.

This concluding chapter begins with a description of young Israelis who have chosen to live in Berlin. The political, economic, and cultural reasons for choosing Berlin are listed. The analysis turns to a critique of the ‘warring tribe’ model of Israeli society and suggests instead that there are presently different versions of ‘being Israeli’, or ‘Israeliness’. The majority version is secular in orientation, and haredim and Israeli Palestinians are variant minority versions. The three share some common cultural features, while also differing in many respects. Continuing close interactions between them produces new features and alignments, and they will continue to negotiate the society’s shape and directions.

The chapter introduces the book, its main claims, and arguments. It is concerned with setting the agenda for how to take labour seriously in Gulf development discourses and the value of centring labour from the margins. The book argues that Oman’s labour market is global and that Omani labour needs to be understood globally and relationally within and beyond the segmentations that divide the labour market. The chapter situates youth and their economic dreams and experiences at the heart of the story of development, discusses how to understand labour within the rentier state, and lays out the framework and empirical analysis to follow.

As a result of the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Palestinian Arabs who had been the majority population became a minority and now amount to 20 percent of the Israeli population. Although discriminated against by the state, they also have found avenues for socioeconomic upward mobility, including recent trends of professionalization. Jews and Arabs live in separate towns and urban neighborhoods, and soccer teams and matches are a limited zone of ‘integration’. Overall, the pattern of majority–minority relationships is described as ‘coexistence’ with periodic outbursts of conflict.

This book seeks to present an understanding of some of the major social, political, and cultural trends that have lately been shaping (or perhaps better, reshaping) Israeli society. Rapid change is a cardinal feature of nearly all contemporary societies, and Israel is hardly an exception. Indeed, many Israelis take a certain pride and marvel too at the scope and speed of change in their own compact, highly differentiated society and culture.

This chapter examines the promotion of entrepreneurship and business startups in Oman and its rhetorical targeting of youth and women. Although innovation is part of the promotion agenda, entrepreneurship is often focused on encouraging citizens to create their own private sector job. The chapter focuses on the experiences of young people in internalising entrepreneurship promotion discourses and in starting personal businesses. It illustrates two key tensions – first, the tension between rentierism embedded within authoritarian governing structures, on the one hand, and the logic of neoliberal capitalism, on the other; and second, the tensions between rhetoric and realities of youth and female empowerment narratives. Entrepreneurship is expressed and promoted as an empowering activity, and at times is experienced as such, but can also be used to legitimise or reconstitute patriarchal and authoritarian structures to accommodate the market. The space of entrepreneurship promotion is both a key tactic of labour market bandaging, and a distinct illustration of rentier neoliberalism

Chapter 3 aims to establish whether the new Arab bodies for constitutional review have acquired the potential to subject the executive branch to adequate checks and thus contribute to the processes of democratization more effectively than in the past. The chapter first discusses the origins of constitutional review in the region, as well as the main reasons why, before the Arab Spring, constitutional courts and councils rarely acted as “counter-majoritarian” bodies. The chapter then turns to an analysis of the major changes in the field of constitutional justice introduced by the post-2011 constitutions, including a limited strengthening of the independence of constitutional review bodies, the vesting of these institutions with judicial status, the broadening of access to these institutions, as well as a further expansion of their jurisdiction. The chapter also examines the role that constitutional courts and councils played in the transition processes that followed the outbreak of the Arab Spring. Finally, the chapter discusses the most significant obstacles that constitutional courts and councils still need to overcome in order to emerge as effective guarantors of the principles of constitutionalism.