This work explains elite behaviour in authoritarian systems and proposes why elites withdraw their support for the incumbent when faced with popular uprisings. The book argues that the elite supporting autocrats come from three distinct cadres: the military, the single-party and the personalist.

Ian Kelly is an Irish diplomat currently serving as the deputy head of mission at the Embassy of Ireland in Oslo. Before entering public service, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Dublin City University, where he also obtained his PhD.

1. Regime Change in the Middle East and North Africa: Moving Beyond Immediate Explanations 2. The Theory: Elites and Regime Change in the Middle East and North Africa 3. Explaining Regime Change in Authoritarian Systems 4. Endogenous Interest Realisation within the Tunisian Elite: The Narrowing of the Regime 5. Exogenous Interest Realisation in within the Tunisian Elite 6. Endogenous Interest Realisation within the Egyptian Elite: A Fragmented Regime 7. Exogenous Interest Realisation within the Egyptian Elite 8. Conclusion