Political elites and legitimation in North Africa: the connection between domestic and international spheres

Revista CIDOB d'Afers Internacionals nº 135

The social contract in North Africa is in crisis. What’s more, the region is locked in a socioeconomic crisis that deepened after the COVID-19 pandemic and has been compounded by the global effects of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. This has highlighted both the vulnerabilities and external dependencies of the states that make up the region in terms of food security and their desire to maintain independent foreign policies in a complex international landscape. It is against this backdrop that the authoritarian and semi-authoritarian elites of these countries feel compelled to revise or reframe their methods of legitimation to remain in power. Consequently, they have expanded their domestic repertoires with ideas, frameworks and/or examples explored in other environments. At the same time, they use internal circumstances to legitimate themselves on the international stage. Issue 135 of Revista CIDOB d’Afers Internacionals presents a theoretical and empirical reflection on the legitimation rationales of these elites, based on the interaction between domestic and international policy, which overlap, interconnect and permeate one another to varying degrees.