Abstract
This chapter explains how strategies and forms of authoritarian rule in the MENA have evolved greatly since the Arab uprisings. Sidestepping normative expectations for democracy and democratization, the chapter shows the primary pathways of change and persistence for many dictatorships. Many autocracies have become personalistic, bucking assumptions that rational leaders should protect themselves with hegemonic parties rather than cronies and sycophants. Most have become far more repressive since the uprisings, despite the costs of ramping up coercion. Others have catalyzed new modes of cultural domination that induce compliance through ideology. This chapter examines the shift in these different domestic practices, showing also at the external level how many regimes have also become imbricated in new networks of international support. These developments enrich prevailing theories about authoritarianism but also show how quickly regional events outpace them.