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This article provides an overview of the internal and external political and economic problems facing the Middle-Eastern Kingdom of Jordan in the light of the so-called 'attempted coup' of Prince Hamzeh which took place at the beginning of April 2021. It then discusses a number of key factors which may affect Jordan's future prospects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article informs that despite discontent from Jordanians, the Israel Airports Authority reports that construction of Ramon Airport and the high wall built around it was necessary for defense against projectiles coming in from the Gaza Strip. It mentions that the Lebanese parliament speaker Nabih Berri accused Israel of violating Lebanon's maritime borders by allowing a private company to execute oil explorations in a part of a disputed area.

The aim of this study is to determine whether the poor have gotten poorer in Jordan. The author employs statistical approach to provide critical comparisons, over time, of the proportions of the poor, using the raw data of four national Household Expenditure and Income Surveys (HEIS) involving 47,622 households. Methodology of measuring food poverty follows that of the World Bank. Testing results show that there is a strong evidence that the poor have not gotten poorer except in few and small governorates, suggesting that the proportion of the poor who have gotten poorer remained below 10%. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

King Hussein of Jordan was often at odds with his less conciliatory counterparts in the Arab world. He was one of the few Arab leaders who engaged and communicated with Israel. The administration of US President Lyndon B. Johnson wanted to ensure the continuation of Hussein's moderate line towards Israel and sold weapons to Jordan. However, providing military support to an Arab state when the vast majority of Americans favoured Israel involved significant political costs. As the Johnson administration saw it, openly favouring only Israel would negatively affect the USA's position and interests in the Arab world. Therefore, Johnson pursued a policy of seemingly balancing Israeli and Jordanian interests. This article argues that the USA supported Jordan primarily to ensure Israel's security, but ultimately, the Johnson administration lacked the will and understanding to properly address Jordan's concerns and failed to prevent King Hussein from joining the Arab side of the 1967 War against Israel. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In February 2018, Jordanians took to the streets in the cities of Theeban, Assalt and Al Karak following the International Monetary Fund guided government decision to raise taxes on 7 64 commodities and abolish bread subsidies. Amidst a total absence of local media coverage, these demonstrations evolved into daily livestreamed debates on Facebook. The political and economic realities of Jordan were discussed which resurrected the 2011 and 2012 demands for a constitutional monarchy, as well as accountability for both the existing regime and also the intelligence department. However, while Jordanians were participating in and watching nightly live-streamed debates, in parallel global campaigns were calling on users to delete Facebook in reaction to the latest data breach scandal following Cambridge Analytica's involvement in the Trump campaign, which gained access to the data of millions of Facebook users. This article explores the conflicting relationship that political movements in soft repressive regimes, like Jordan, have with Facebook due to on the one hand the local restrictive media environment and on the other the global criticisms of Facebook's data sharing violations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This aims to review and analyze the Jordanian experiment in the developmental regional planning field within the decentralized managerial methods, which is considered one of the primary basic provisions for applying and success of this kind of planning. The study shoed that Jordan has passed important steps in the way for implanting the decentralized administration, but these steps are still not enough to established the effective and active regional planning. The study reveled that there are many problems facing the decentralized regional planning in Jordan, despite of the clear goals that this planning is trying to achieve. These problems have resulted from the existing relationship between the decentralized administration process' dimensions from one side, and between its levels which ranged from weak to medium decentralization from the other side, In spite of the official trends aiming at applying more of the decentralized administrative policies, still high portion of these procedures are theoretical, did not yet find a way to reality. Because any progress or success at the level of applying the decentralized administrative policies doubtless means greater effectiveness and influence on the development regional planning in life of the residents in the kingdom's different regions. So, it is important to go a head in applying more steps and decentralized administrative procedures, gradually and continuously to guarantee the control over any negative effects that might result from Appling this kind of systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article offers a comprehensive review of the process of political reform in Jordan under the reign of King Hussein and King Abdullah II from 1989 to the present. It also identifies obstacles to political reform. Main findings include that political reform in Jordan is an old and popular demand, and that the process of political reform in the country has made some achievements. However, these achievements have not been enough to push real and lasting reforms forward. The study presents a number of policy recommendations. The most notable concern is the need for further constitutional amendments to consolidate the democratic principle of “sovereignty of the people,” reduce the executive authority’s access to other authorities, and reconsider the laws governing political life, to build a state ruled by law and institutions, to establish a society of justice and equality, and to overcome the instabilities manifested in the Arab Spring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On August 15 2017, Jordan saw municipal election held according to the local councils system for the first time. These are smaller units which make the municipal councils. The step coincides this year with the decentralization election. The first experience of its kind after the Decentralization Law no. 49 of 2015 aimed at carrying out the organizational principle at the governorate level by granting local administrations broader powers. Basically, the two processes are intended by the government to widen the democratic choice as the state approach for action and to encourage further public participation in the development decisions. The turnout amounted to 4.460 million, making 31.7% of those eligible to vote. The least percentage was recorded in Amman by 17.5%. Again, the results indicate the weakness of the Jordanian parties in seizing the ballot opportunity to enhance their popularity. They only won 3.5% of the 2444 seats of the local, municipal and governorate councils, including Greater Amman. Other than that of Zarka, they only got 6 small and marginal municipalities out of the total 100, Finally, the National Alliance for Reform, led by the Islamic Action Front Party, made some progress, mainly in leading Zarka Municipality. On the other hand, advancing through competition and quota, women managed to gain 25% of the total seats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of refugee camps have criticised Agamben's conceptualisation of exception, understood as the juridical production of ‘bare life’ by the sovereign. They have emphasised the multiplicity of actors and exclusionary dynamics involved in the production of exception, as well as the politicisation of space. This scholarship has however stayed framed around an ‘exclusionary paradigm’. This article proposes a complementary way to move beyond Agamben's analysis of the camp by reconsidering the idea of a ‘zone of indistinction’ between exclusion and inclusion. It refers to Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan, where many dwellers have a dual status of ‘refugee-citizen’. It analyses how the subject and citizenship are ambiguously constructed as simultaneously excluded and included – and not solely included through an exclusion. To explore these complex spatial dynamics of exclusion and inclusion, the analysis addresses the exercise of three forms of power – sovereignty, discipline and government – by focusing on the materiality of the camp and the practices of authorities managing space. These powers are ambiguously contributing to the inclusion of the camp and its dwellers in the territory of the Jordanian state, as well as in the neoliberal city of Amman, while maintaining the character of the camp as an excluded humanitarian and temporary space. Through this process, camp dwellers are recast not only as assisted subjects and beneficiaries, but also as autonomous and productive subjects, as well as entrepreneurs and consumers. This article therefore argues that the camp needs to be re-considered as a space of multiple ambiguities and subjectivities aimed at creating a differentiation in the city. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the Islamist organization the Muslim Brotherhood's relations with the Jordan Hashemite monarchy from the late 1920s through the mid 2010s, including its opposition to the government during the 2010s and the Brotherhood's political wing the Islamic Action Front (IAF). An overview of Palestinian Jordanians' support for the Muslilm Brotherhood is provided.

A medida que el sector de la educación en Jordania pasa de ser una respuesta humanitaria a ser una respuesta de desarrollo, la falta de planificación para que la transición sea adecuada hace que se corra el riesgo de excluir a algunos colectivos de alumnos. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses use of gender quota in politics in Middle Eastern countries including Jordan and mentions topics such as Muslim women's representation, women empowerment and tribal women.

This study aims to identify the attempts to form a Jordanian national identity from the establishment of the Jordanian state in 1921 to date. This study reviews the efforts of the Jordanian state, which was subject to internal, external, political, social, economic, and cultural circumstances, and variables that led to change the Jordanian national identity to incorporate religious, national, regional, ethnic, and tribal aspects. The regime has been unable to address and resolve the issue of national identity; instead, it has tried several means to circumvent the problem of national identity. The identity card is a means that the regime has used to achieve its goals. These policies led to the state’s failure to define, establish, and maintain a comprehensive national identity for its citizens. The formation of a national identity has been a dilemma for Jordan since the establishment of the state; there is almost no known national identity. This situation calls for the construction of the Jordanian national identity on a fixed and clear basis to prevent its disintegration, to facilitate the process of social integration, and to build a final national identity that is both inclusive and representative. Without this identity, division and conflict may prevail in Jordanian society. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Serious political crises observed in the Arab world since 2011 have resulted in the overthrow of or attacks on several dictatorships, but it is interesting to note that deep crises of state structures were observed in the Arab republics, while the monarchies retained political and social stability. The author observes that this is hardly a coincidence, as the monarchs rely on the traditional legitimacy of power, with the reigning dynasties depending either on their descent from Prophet Muhammad or on their contribution to the renewal of Islam. The authority of these monarchs is close to absolute, even in Jordan, where many European arrangements have been adopted (for example, a constitution, parliament, and elections). This text examines several decades in Jordan's development, focusing on the crises of authority in 1951, 1956-1957, 1967-1970 and 1989-1991. In times of crisis, the Hashemites draw on their prerogatives as absolute rulers, and on the concept of the ruler in Islamic tradition, so Jordan's history may be presented as an example of the stabilising role of monarchies in the Arab world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper provides a semiotic analysis of political cartoons published in Jordan prior to and during the 2013 elections. It seeks to depict the sociopolitical context after the 2011 Arab Spring and focuses on the changes to people's practices and stances toward politics and politicians. The data consist of political cartoons by the Jordanian cartoonist Imad Hajjaj drawn during the parliamentary election campaigns in 2007, 2010, and 2013. This paper argues that the humor generated in cartoons conveys strong messages that require an analysis of the interaction between the different signs in cartoons and their social and ideological implications. A model of analysis derived from Barthes' perception of denotation and connotation theories is adopted. This model is comprised of three types of messages: linguistic, literal, and symbolic. The analysis identifies different messages in the cartoons before and after 2011. Unlike the cartoons from 2007 and 2010, the linguistic and denoted messages in the cartoons of 2013 connoted a sense of salvation, achievement, victory, freedom, dignity, and democracy, merits that had rarely been highlighted in previous cartoons. This attitude is reflected by themes such as the positive image of the young, public awareness of political and national issues, and resistance towards corruption. The study sheds light on this neglected area of visual communication in the Arab world and hopes to provide new insights into the fields of semiotics, pragmatics, multimodal analysis, and critical discourse analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2002, fourteen years after their withdrawal from the West Bank, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan revealed its new national program known as “Jordan First.” The Palace initiated this campaign as part of its shifting national discourse which now sought to actively unite Palestinian-Jordanians and East Jordanians living to the east of the Jordan River. This campaign, and particularly its common map-logo symbol, has evolved over the last fourteen years into a rather “banal” national discourse and symbol. However, Jordanian nationalism and the everyday symbols of the Jordan First campaign are not forgotten. Instead, for many Jordanians, the campaign is a reminder of “hot” geopolitics and palpable identity politics. Drawing from Michael Billig's theorizations of banal nationalism, I examine the relationship between banal and hot forms of nationalism in Jordan and argue that scholarly work on banality needs to focus attention on the connections between these categories. As such, I suggest that framing nationalism as something quite “warm” can in many instances more aptly capture the complexity of nationalism. Using a multi-method approach that includes analyses of national maps and map-logos of Jordan and in-depth interviews with Jordanians about their national identities, I highlight the connections of hot and banal nationalism. Through my analysis, I also show that a Jordanian national identity is multi-scalar, merging Arab supranationalism with Jordanian and Palestinian identities; and thus I also extend Billig's work to examine the multiple scales of nationalism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article aims at defining the role of constitutional courts in protecting the fundamental human rights of individuals, by relating the importance of constitutional judicial review and the established international standards related to the way it is performed. The study also provides an in-depth analysis of the structure and working mechanism of the new constitutional court in Jordan with regard to its main functions described in the constitution of providing oversight of the constitutionality of laws and regulations in power, and interpreting provisions of the constitution. The study concludes that current statutory provisions with respect to the court proceedings and the method of undertaking its judicial work serve as safeguards that strengthen the role of the court in promoting individuals' human rights. The study defines a vision of what is anticipated from the new constitutional court of Jordan and other courts in the field of defending human rights from the contemporary threats the world is facing, which only serve to increase fears among individuals that their basic rights are subject to serious attacks and violations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After almost three decades of electoral contestation, the Jordanian Muslim Brotherhood (JMB) has moved away from being a ‘loyal opposition’ advocating the Islamization of Jordanian politics and avoiding any open confrontations with the regime, to a ‘hard opposition’ advocating political reforms and from demanding the formation of a functioning constitutional monarchy. This paper will discuss why and how on such a political transformation has taken place by utilizing theories on party change, social movements, political transitions from authoritarianism, state power, Islamic political thought, and democratization in the Middle East. In doing so, it will also critically evaluate the findings of the inclusion-moderation literature, adapt a qualitative methodology, and argue that (1) the Jordanian regime deliberalized as the JMB became electorally successful during the regime’s tactical political opening, that (2) the regime’s deliberalization created internal debates within the JMB in regards to how to respond to these transformations in the regime, and that (3) the JMB became less idealistic, that is less focused on morality issues, and more realistic, that is more focused on actual political problems and policy, such as unemployment and constitutional reforms, as a result of these internal debates. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

It has been widely believed that Jordan was generous to refugees from Palestine by pursuing assimilative policies that help refugees integrate into society while accepting as many refugees as possible. It seems regrettable that Palestinian refugees are no more welcomed nor treated fairly by the Jordanian government. This study argues that this commonly held belief is limited to cases of early settlers in the mid-twentieth century, and that the Jordanian government has had different policies for different refugee groups. This study further explores the political aspects of Jordan's selective policies and concludes that Jordan’s refugee policies can best be explained through the existence of external security threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The argument that Jordan is a remarkably stable country in a volatile region has become axiomatic. Some contend that the Hashemite monarchy is indispensable for the country’s stability. Nonetheless, an in-depth analysis of Jordan’s political status quo reveals the deep-seated cleavages that- if left unattended- could jeopardize the stability of the country in years to come. The advent of a political awakening among Jordan’s youth- who display unprecedented self-entitlement- and the eruption of the Arab uprisings have left the monarch with two options: either effect genuine reform to restore the public’s trust in the regime or risk facing future instability. This paper identifies the shortcomings and imperfections of the current autocratic status quo and assesses the prospects of instability. My intent in this paper is to explain and contextualize the intricate dynamics of the regime’s insistence on reproducing the non-democratic status quo during the Arab Spring and question whether this might lead to instability in the long term in a changing society. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]