Informal Politics in the Middle East.

• Author: Yavuz, Mustafa Fatih

Edited by Suzi Mirgani

London: C Hurst & Co Publishers, 2021, 336 pages, [pounds sterling]21.99, ISBN: 9781787384829

In her latest work, Informal Politics in the Middle East, Suzi Mirgani, and the other writers who contributed to the book, delve deep into the complex and often misunderstood world of informal politics in the region. Covering a wide range of political actors, from women associations to tribal leaders, Mirgani's edited study is a fascinating and highly informative account of the forces that shape the Middle East's political landscape.

The book is organized into ten well-researched and highly engaging chapters, each focusing on a different aspect of informal politics. Through a combination of historical analysis, case studies, and interviews, writers paint a vivid picture of the intricate web of relationships and power dynamics that exist within the regions informal political sphere.

Chapter 1, "Defining Informal Politics," sets the stage for the rest of the book by providing a comprehensive definition of informal politics and exploring the factors that contribute to its prevalence in the Middle East. Mirgani goes into two types of classification in the book and the study's organization. In the first classification, informal structures in the Middle East work in harmony with the dominant element, the state or regime. Informal structures resolve the conflict with the formal structure or structures, which are the state and its extensions, through mediation with mostly traditional ways. She calls this classification or model as "converging formal and informal politics." In the second classification, which Mirgani prefers to call "diverging formal and informal politics," writers present examples of states in which formal and informal politics are in conflict and informal politics elements such as NGOs in Egypt, Iran, and Algeria are struggling to survive for recognition by the formal state and its institutions.

In chapter 2, "Weighing the Tribal Factor in Yemen's Informal Politics," Charles Schmitz delves into the complex world of tribal politics in Yemen, exploring how tribes and tribal identities continue to shape political outcomes in the country. Schmitz argues that after the state intervened in the intra-tribal dynamics, tribalism changed its violence-reducing nature and ended the idea of tribalism by damaging the intra-tribal dynamics. He also opens a new horizon by claiming that the war that entered the peace process in...