To the extent that political competition and pluralism are allowed in these Arab regimes (which include Algeria, Jordan, Kuwait, and Morocco as well as Egypt), it is within rules and parameters carefully drawn to ensure that regime opponents are disadvantaged and disempowered. Electoral practices (such as Jordan’s use of the Single Non-Transferrable Vote, or SNTV) are chosen and tilted to privilege personal ties and tribal candidates over organized political parties, especially Islamist ones.18 Parliaments that result from these limited elections have no real power to legislate or govern, as more or less unlimited authority continues to reside with hereditary kings and imperial presidents.