Opposition inclusion and exclusion in the Arab world: Evidence from a new dataset

The literature on the Arab world is full of accounts on how authoritarian regimes manipulate the secular-Islamist cleavage to remain in power. This literature, however, has two gaps. First, there is no comparative data on the regional patterns of inclusion and exclusion that characterize regime-opposition relations in the Arab world. Second, studies usually do not account for the different shades of secular and Islamist groups. This research note bridges both gaps by introducing an original dataset: the Arab Opposition Power Relations dataset. The dataset codes power relations between four secular and Islamist groups in 13 Arab countries between 2005 and 2016 to a total of 624 group observations. Descriptive analysis of the dataset illustrates the changing patterns of inclusion and exclusion within and across countries both before and after the 2011 Arab uprisings. In so doing, the dataset opens new research frontiers for the vibrant literature on the resilience of authoritarianism in the Arab world