With the persistence of authoritarianism in the Arab world, scholars increasingly are questioning the conditions under which authoritarian regimes persist, how they adapt, and the strategies they use to maintain control. The literature on strategies of state control largely focuses on four strategies: rents, cooptation, imitative institutions and the creation of new elites (Albrecht and Schlumberger 2004). However, the literature on strategies of state control primarily focuses on the national level to the neglect of both the international and the local levels. This paper seeks to address these two under-researched areas by examining the nexus between state strategies of control and international development projects at the municipal level in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The paper questions the degree to which international donor projects serve to legitimate the authoritarian state’s strategies of control at the municipal level. Based on fieldwork conducted in 22 of Jordan’s 93 municipalities in 2010, the paper argues that two broad strategies of state control are being implemented at the municipal level. The first is a process of de-politicization and the second is the technocratization of municipal politics. International development projects serve to strengthen both of these processes by aiding a shift in discourse to one of efficiency, economic growth and development, reinforcing the income-generating role of municipalities and elevating the role of technocrats within municipalities. International donors lend further legitimacy to authoritarian strategies by encouraging political participation and policy ownership while funneling this participation into a narrow range of economic and technical decisions.
