Introduction: Researching the effects of neoliberal reforms on local governance in the Southern Mediterranean

The effects of neoliberal economic reforms in the Southern Mediterranean are now widely regarded as a main underlying cause of the Arab uprisings. An often neglected dimension is that of the reforms' implications for local governance. The contributions to this collection examine how state power is being re-articulated but also challenged at sub-national levels in Morocco, Egypt, Jordan, Israel, Lebanon and Turkey. They explore the effects of neoliberal economic and local governance reforms such as decentralization, public-private partnerships, and outsourcing in the area of public service delivery, poverty alleviation and labour market reforms on local patronage networks, public accountability and state-society relations. The findings show that such reforms are often subordinated to established patterns of political contestation among actors who seize on the opportunities that reforms offer to advance their political agendas. This introduction presents the key themes and findings, and the global and regional background on neoliberal theories, research and practice.

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