Author Meets Critics: Sofia Fenner's "Shouting in a Cage"

Session Submission Type: Author meet critics

Session Description

The co-optation of oppositional parties is central to authoritarian politics, a crucial strategy for regime survival. Co-optation has long been understood as a process of silencing opponents, quieting them by absorbing them into the system. In "Shouting in a Cage: Political Life After Authoritarian Co-optation in North Africa" (Columbia University Press, 2023), Sofia Fenner disrupts this reading, offering a new lens to understand co-optation by examining two co-opted parties, the Wafd Party in Egypt and the Istiqlal Party in Morocco. The book argues that co-optation is less a corrupt bargain than a discursive contest—a clash of competing interpretations. Co-opted parties conjure up imagined futures in which their short-term choices will lead to the realization of their long-term democratic goals. Based on archival research and ethnographic fieldwork in Egypt and Morocco, “Shouting in a Cage” challenges our understanding of political behavior under authoritarianism.

This author-meets-critics panel brings together junior and senior scholars to discuss Fenner’s work. The panel features comments from Osman Balkan (University of Pennsylvania), Rabab El-Mahdi (American University in Cairo), Tarek Masoud (Harvard University), Milan Svolik (Yale University), and Sean Yom (Temple University), with a reply from Sofia Fenner (Colorado College).

Sub Unit

• Division 44: Democracy and Autocracy

Chair

• Yuna Blajer de la Garza Loyola University, Chicago

Presenters

• Osman Balkan University of Pennsylvania

• Rabab El-Mahdi American University of Cairo

• Tarek Masoud Harvard University

• Sean Yom Temple University

• Sofia Fenner Colorado College