Authoritarian States and Voting From Abroad: North African Experiences

Until now, few studies have focused on states' increasing extension of voting rights to citizens residing abroad. It is particularly striking that the right to vote from abroad has often been extended not only by democracies or transitional regimes but by authoritarian states as well. The cases of Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia help explain this phenomenon. These North African experiences demonstrate that while authoritarian states often appropriate the language of citizenship, the extension of voting rights by these states has implications different from those in democratic settings. In authoritarian contexts, expanding the franchise is aimed at increasing sovereignty over expatriates with resources to be tapped or at reinforcing security through a different means of monitoring communities abroad.