Book Reviews Moustafa, T. (2007). The Struggle for Constitutional

In recent years, the persistence of authoritarianism in the Middle East has prompted scholars to reconsider the value of certain institutions that were previ-ously perceived as catalysts of democratization. In this vein, Brownlee’s (2007) analysis of elections in Iran and Egypt and Kassem’s (2004) analysis of Egyptian civil society and political parties examined how authoritarian regimes have either co-opted liberalizing institutions or maneuvered effectively despite them. Tamir Moustafa’s The Struggle for Constitutional Power explores yet another liberalizing institution—independent constitutional courts with the power of judicial review— and asks why authoritarian regimes would choose to establish these courts. This phenomenon is particularly intriguing considering that constitutional courts often create avenues for opposition groups to challenge the regime, whereas “conven-tional understandings of authoritarian political systems deny the possibility of judi-cial politics emerging from within authoritarian states ” (p. 2). In addressing this puzzle, Moustafa challenges previous literature on judicial institutions under authoritarianism, which views these courts as apolitical, if not outright pawns of their regimes. As Moustafa’s study of Egypt’s Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) convincingly demonstrates, they are neither apolitica