Books by Ruth Hanau Santini

Hybrid forms of governance - where the central state authority does not possess a monopoly of violence and fails to exercise control - are not only an epiphenomena, but a reality likely to persist. This book explores this phenomenon drawing on examples from the Middle East and Africa. It considers the different sorts of actors - state and non-state, public and private, national and transnational - which possess power, examines the dynamics of the relationships between central authorities and other actors, and reviews the varying outcomes. The book provides an alternative view of the way in which governance has been constructed and lived, puts forward a conceptualisation of various forms of governance which have hitherto been regarded as exceptions, and argues for such forms of governance to be regarded as part of the norm.

The critical reading of statehood speaks beyond the Tunisian case study as notions of limited statehood can be applied, with different degrees of intensity and in some dimensions more than others, to most political systems in the Middle East and North Africa.