Democratically elected Islamist parties emerged into newly opened political scenes in Egypt and Tunisia in 2011/12 but could not hold their ground. What does this tell us about the capacity for Islamist actors to enter "mainstream politics" in the modern MENA?

This seminar explores the change capacity of the Party of al-Nahda Movement and the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood (MB) by unpacking their organisational dynamics in the post-Uprisings period (2011-2020) and assessing the overall imprint that those dynamics left on their respective organisations ten years later.

In doing so, this study departs from social movement theory and its variants by building an institutional perspective that puts culture and 'politics-in-organisation' at the centre of the analysis.

The comparative assessment of the MB and al-Nahda's organisational dynamics contends that these dynamics are neither casual nor necessarily consequential phenomena.

They carry precise meanings consistent with those cultural-symbolic values underlying pre-existing identity markers and group ideas.

The comparative case study of these long-established institutions suggests that their change capacity is mediated by an attitudinal predisposition whether to change or not and a subsequent identification with the outcome of a change process by their members and supporters. Regarding the latter, al-Nahda's longer experience in power sheds light on the shortcomings of launching a substantial change when identification does not follow.

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Zoom link: https://otago.zoom.us/j/91026668858
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