Seminar Announcement: Informal Workers as Outsiders – Political Participation and Voice Across MENA Countries

Date: Tuesday, May 27, 2025

Time: 2:00 PM – 4:00 PM
Location: QS A415 and via Zoom
Zoom ID: 989 1394 5271 | Passcode: 048427

The Political Economy Research group and Department of Political Science are pleased to host Professor Anil Duman for a seminar titled Informal Workers as Outsiders: Political Participation and Voice Across MENA Countries. This timely and critical talk will examine the structural barriers informal workers face in engaging with political processes across the Middle East and North Africa.

Abstract:
This study explores how informal employment, prevalent across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, impacts political behavior by creating insider-outsider divides. While previous research offers mixed evidence on the relationship between informal employment, voting patterns, and social policy preferences, our analysis reveals a significant and robust negative association between informality and various forms of political mobilization, including petitioning, protesting, and the use of force for political causes. Informal sector workers are less likely to engage politically due to limited resources, organizational constraints, and diminished incentives within exclusionary economic and political systems. Importantly, our findings show that this inverse relationship persists regardless of democratic context, although social assistance programs can partially mediate the effects of informality on political engagement. Our findings emphasize the importance of structural barriers in fostering inclusive political participation and expand the literature on the relationship between labor markets, social policy and democratization in Global South.

About the Speaker:
Anil Duman is a Professor and Head of the Political Science Department at Central European University. She has received her M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics from University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her broad research interests include labor economics, political economy, industrial relations, welfare state policies, and redistribution. In her recent research, she has been specializing on the labor market effects and governance of informality, particularly on employment and wage consequences of a dual economic structure. She is also examining the relationship between refugee influx and living and working conditions in the context of a developing country.

This seminar is open to the public and will be of particular interest to those studying labor markets, social policy, political participation, and regional dynamics in the MENA region.

Join us in person or online for this engaging and insightful discussion.