Let's Get This Party Started
Political parties re-launch in Jordan but will the public be interested (part one of a three part series)
Jordan is undertaking one of its biggest political reforms (although they call it a ‘modernization’) by reviving the moribund institution of political parties, and creating a hybrid parliament. This follows the royal appointment of a 92-person commission to examine political life in the Kingdom, and they did, producing a 200+ page booklet of recommendations. The booklet is a sprawling work discussing many topics from local governance to creating a ‘comprehensive Jordanian identity’ some of which are very popular and others not so (i.e. party work in Universities). So far, two major changes have resulted. 1) The parliament will have a set number of seats for political parties, and over three elections this will increase from roughly a third, then to a half, then to 65% of Parliament. After a decade or so, political parties will have the majority of seats in parliament. 2) Revive the idea of political parties. This is a tall order. There were 52 parties, few of which participated in elections and very few of which had any communications or outreach. As of last week, more than two dozen parties have been revamped to be expanded and more inclusive, with inclusion quotas for women, youth, and persons with disabilities.
3 things you should know:.
Hybrid Parliament: Why should a Jordanian have a political party when they have a tribe? How is a political party going to represent citizens when political trust is low? Essentially, it all hinges on the hybrid Parliament. Parties will have almost a third of Parliament in the next election. So Jordanians can have dual representation - a single MP to represent their constituency and a party from the proportional side of Parliament to implement their vision. So parties are not replacing the tribal role in politics, but augmenting representation with an additional institution. Without this quota for parties, the party experiment likely would not work. Parliament has a lesser role in legislation and oversight, and a de facto larger role in service provision, wasta, favors, and what the Americans call ‘pork-barrel politics’ (carving out money from the budget for special projects in the constituency back home). This is power and it becomes influential. This is the power parties will tap into, and eventually (we hope) demand power in the other areas of legislation and oversight.
The Old Parties:
Since their re-formation in 1992, political parties have not accomplished much. There are several reasons - many parties were ego projects without an organization, few participated in elections, and very few had an actual platform or any chance for members to learn, grow, and rise in the ranks. But especially, parties were kept from power. In 1992 the controversial one-man-one-vote electoral law came into effect which hindered the political party growth and influence in favor of tribal and centrist voting. Since the introduction of that law many parties divided among three approaches: boycott, conditioned participation and participation. Despite being the biggest winner among the political parties, winning 16 seats, the IAF led the boycott movement of parliamentary elections in 1997 when the government refused to concede to the group’s demand - the main demand being abolishing the one-man-one vote law.
On top of the one-man-one-vote law, political life in Jordan was limited due to a general apprehension of partisan activity both by the public and the security services. These apprehensions fed off of each other, until services were suspicious of any political group and parents were discouraging their children from party membership.
Global Influence: One reason why parties were viewed with suspicion were their regional ties. The Communists to the USSR, the Baathists to Iraq and Syria, the Muslim Brotherhood with its counterpart in Egypt and the leftist parties were the political representatives of former militant Palestinian groups that previously operated in Jordan, leading to the Black September events. Regional parties were also seen as dangers to their own countries Baathists in Iraq and Syria, Kataeb and Hezbollah in Lebanon, Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt. Parties in the region were tools of division or autocracy, and not political empowerment or representation. So, parties were an outside innovation rather than an organic fact of Jordanian civic life. For the past generations, civic life consisted of direct government contact, tribes, trade unions, and neighborhood collectives solving common problems.
My take: It all depends on the platforms. If they start making promises to youth without a platform, they just reinforce the ideas of puppets who want a seat in parliament but don’t intend to do anything. Also, how will two dozen parties differentiate from each other? How will Jordanians know who they will vote for? It all depends on the platforms and how they are communicated. Unfortunately, so far, they are not very specific, containing bromides on citizenship, vague paragraphs on creating jobs, and unclear promises on representation. If there is one thing to watch to judge the success of the entire modernization - it is the development and communication of party platforms.
I am excited to see a ‘political compass’ for Jordan. On Election Day, there will be two ballots - one for the majoritarian candidate, and one ballot with the names of parties. How will Jordanians decide if they identify as Social Democrats, or Communists, or Baathists, or Conservatives? And what do those terms even mean in Jordan? (what are the conservatives conserving here?). People have talked about the need to flush out these ideas, but no one has done it. How would we start? And who wants to work on it with me? (because I will be doing it).
Articles of Note:
Remember that Jordan had an exemption from the sanctions on Saddam’s Iraq after the first Gulf War.
What is illogical is viewing all Jordan from the Fourth Circle political bubble. Awareness of reforms is low until the reforms are implemented and results are tangible. This is not different from other poll results on other reforms - including the modernization committee and the recent party reforms.