Edited by Eoin O’Malley, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland, Francesco Cavatorta, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Université Laval, Canada and Alexander Baturo, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland

‘This timely Handbook offers a comprehensive study of oppositional politics exploring parties, interest groups, NGOs, and social movements. Its diverse case studies highlight formal and informal resistance strategies across authoritarian and democratic contexts, enriching understanding of opposition tactics and objectives. This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the tools of resistance, and the challenges resistance efforts face.’

• Contents1 Introduction: opposition politics in democracies, anocracies and autocracies 1Alexander Baturo, Eoin O’Malley and Francesco CavatortaPART I FORMS OF POLITICAL OPPOSITION2 The changing shape of formal opposition in advanced democracies 11Eoin O’Malley3 Informal opposition politics in arts, culture, and youth 25Cristina Moreno Almeida4 Civil society as an oppositional force in democratic and non-democratic regimes 39Vincent Durac5 Humour as political opposition 53Ross Carroll6 Everyday opposition 67Stephanie Dornschneider-ElkinkPART II DEMOCRATIC REGIMES7 America’s own brand of extremists? Militias and anti-Government opposition in the United States 81Victor Bardou-Bourgeois8 Japan: weak opposition in a dominant party system 95Ko Maeda9 The political opposition in India 107Subrata K. Mitra, Jivanta Schottli and Markus Pauli10 The United Kingdom: loyal opposition as a political institution 123Nigel Fletcher11 Chilean opposition dynamics: mechanisms of status quo reproduction 137Bruna Fonseca, Inés Fynn and Lihuen Nocetto12 Opposition and two-party politics in Ghana 151Anja Osei 13 Opposition in action: divides, strategies and constraints in Brazil’s legislative arena 169Bianca Flório LimaPART III ANOCRACIES14 The Crown and its peripheries: understanding opposition dynamics in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 191Paul Esber15 Indonesia’s weak opposition amidst party cartelisation 207Alexandre Pelletier16 Poland’s opposition politics: resisting the populist swing 223Agnieszka Kwiatkowska17 Colombia: opposition in the midst of uncertainty 245Laura Gamboa18 Opposition politics in Senegal: from legal recognition to governmental turnover 261Marie Brossier19 State resistance and complementarity among the women of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Tunisia 275Alessandra BonciPART IV AUTOCRATIC REGIMES20 Exiting as opposition: the case of Cuba 293Bert Hoffmann21 China: systematic surveillance, censorship and repression 305Alexandre Schiele and Ting-Sheng Lin22 Destroying opposition in autocracy: the case of Russia in 1991–2024 319Nikita Khokhlov23 Unpacking the world of opposition in Venezuela 1999–2023: the Who and the How 337Maryhen Jiménez24 From the Royal Court to the data feed: political opposition in – and beyond – Saudi Arabia 351Javier Bordón25 The Syrian offshore opposition – lack of presence, lack of leverage? 367Gianmarco Fontana26 The evolution of political opposition in post-revolutionary Iran 379Mohsen Moheimany

Edited by Eoin O’Malley, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland, Francesco Cavatorta, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Université Laval, Canada and Alexander Baturo, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland

‘This timely Handbook offers a comprehensive study of oppositional politics exploring parties, interest groups, NGOs, and social movements. Its diverse case studies highlight formal and informal resistance strategies across authoritarian and democratic contexts, enriching understanding of opposition tactics and objectives. This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the tools of resistance, and the challenges resistance efforts face.’

• Contents1 Introduction: opposition politics in democracies, anocracies and autocracies 1Alexander Baturo, Eoin O’Malley and Francesco CavatortaPART I FORMS OF POLITICAL OPPOSITION2 The changing shape of formal opposition in advanced democracies 11Eoin O’Malley3 Informal opposition politics in arts, culture, and youth 25Cristina Moreno Almeida4 Civil society as an oppositional force in democratic and non-democratic regimes 39Vincent Durac5 Humour as political opposition 53Ross Carroll6 Everyday opposition 67Stephanie Dornschneider-ElkinkPART II DEMOCRATIC REGIMES7 America’s own brand of extremists? Militias and anti-Government opposition in the United States 81Victor Bardou-Bourgeois8 Japan: weak opposition in a dominant party system 95Ko Maeda9 The political opposition in India 107Subrata K. Mitra, Jivanta Schottli and Markus Pauli10 The United Kingdom: loyal opposition as a political institution 123Nigel Fletcher11 Chilean opposition dynamics: mechanisms of status quo reproduction 137Bruna Fonseca, Inés Fynn and Lihuen Nocetto12 Opposition and two-party politics in Ghana 151Anja Osei 13 Opposition in action: divides, strategies and constraints in Brazil’s legislative arena 169Bianca Flório LimaPART III ANOCRACIES14 The Crown and its peripheries: understanding opposition dynamics in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 191Paul Esber15 Indonesia’s weak opposition amidst party cartelisation 207Alexandre Pelletier16 Poland’s opposition politics: resisting the populist swing 223Agnieszka Kwiatkowska17 Colombia: opposition in the midst of uncertainty 245Laura Gamboa18 Opposition politics in Senegal: from legal recognition to governmental turnover 261Marie Brossier19 State resistance and complementarity among the women of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Tunisia 275Alessandra BonciPART IV AUTOCRATIC REGIMES20 Exiting as opposition: the case of Cuba 293Bert Hoffmann21 China: systematic surveillance, censorship and repression 305Alexandre Schiele and Ting-Sheng Lin22 Destroying opposition in autocracy: the case of Russia in 1991–2024 319Nikita Khokhlov23 Unpacking the world of opposition in Venezuela 1999–2023: the Who and the How 337Maryhen Jiménez24 From the Royal Court to the data feed: political opposition in – and beyond – Saudi Arabia 351Javier Bordón25 The Syrian offshore opposition – lack of presence, lack of leverage? 367Gianmarco Fontana26 The evolution of political opposition in post-revolutionary Iran 379Mohsen Moheimany

Edited by Eoin O’Malley, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland, Francesco Cavatorta, Department of Political Science, Faculty of Social Sciences, Université Laval, Canada and Alexander Baturo, School of Law and Government, Dublin City University, Ireland

‘This timely Handbook offers a comprehensive study of oppositional politics exploring parties, interest groups, NGOs, and social movements. Its diverse case studies highlight formal and informal resistance strategies across authoritarian and democratic contexts, enriching understanding of opposition tactics and objectives. This is a must read for anyone interested in understanding the tools of resistance, and the challenges resistance efforts face.’

• Contents1 Introduction: opposition politics in democracies, anocracies and autocracies 1Alexander Baturo, Eoin O’Malley and Francesco CavatortaPART I FORMS OF POLITICAL OPPOSITION2 The changing shape of formal opposition in advanced democracies 11Eoin O’Malley3 Informal opposition politics in arts, culture, and youth 25Cristina Moreno Almeida4 Civil society as an oppositional force in democratic and non-democratic regimes 39Vincent Durac5 Humour as political opposition 53Ross Carroll6 Everyday opposition 67Stephanie Dornschneider-ElkinkPART II DEMOCRATIC REGIMES7 America’s own brand of extremists? Militias and anti-Government opposition in the United States 81Victor Bardou-Bourgeois8 Japan: weak opposition in a dominant party system 95Ko Maeda9 The political opposition in India 107Subrata K. Mitra, Jivanta Schottli and Markus Pauli10 The United Kingdom: loyal opposition as a political institution 123Nigel Fletcher11 Chilean opposition dynamics: mechanisms of status quo reproduction 137Bruna Fonseca, Inés Fynn and Lihuen Nocetto12 Opposition and two-party politics in Ghana 151Anja Osei 13 Opposition in action: divides, strategies and constraints in Brazil’s legislative arena 169Bianca Flório LimaPART III ANOCRACIES14 The Crown and its peripheries: understanding opposition dynamics in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan 191Paul Esber15 Indonesia’s weak opposition amidst party cartelisation 207Alexandre Pelletier16 Poland’s opposition politics: resisting the populist swing 223Agnieszka Kwiatkowska17 Colombia: opposition in the midst of uncertainty 245Laura Gamboa18 Opposition politics in Senegal: from legal recognition to governmental turnover 261Marie Brossier19 State resistance and complementarity among the women of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Tunisia 275Alessandra BonciPART IV AUTOCRATIC REGIMES20 Exiting as opposition: the case of Cuba 293Bert Hoffmann21 China: systematic surveillance, censorship and repression 305Alexandre Schiele and Ting-Sheng Lin22 Destroying opposition in autocracy: the case of Russia in 1991–2024 319Nikita Khokhlov23 Unpacking the world of opposition in Venezuela 1999–2023: the Who and the How 337Maryhen Jiménez24 From the Royal Court to the data feed: political opposition in – and beyond – Saudi Arabia 351Javier Bordón25 The Syrian offshore opposition – lack of presence, lack of leverage? 367Gianmarco Fontana26 The evolution of political opposition in post-revolutionary Iran 379Mohsen Moheimany