Community Service Provision by Political Associations Representing Minorities in the Middle East and North Africa

What factors make it more likely that political associations will engage in community service provision? This article examines the service provision activities of minority-identified political associations in the Middle East prior to the Arab Spring, giving an important view of associational activity during the period leading up to substantial political change in the region. Drawing from two distinct bodies of literature—on nonprofit organizations and on political violence—the paper analyzes organizational level data for more than 100 minority-identified, politically oriented voluntary associations in the Middle East and North Africa during the period from 1980 to 2004. We find that the likelihood of political associations also providing community services aligns more closely to variables found in the political violence literature than the literature on nonprofit organizations, making an important case for more cross-disciplinary analysis when examining associational life in the Middle East and North Africa.