One party systems etc.

It seems to me that paries play a significant role in non-democratic states in MENA. Although they bear the same name as political parties in Western democracies, and are superficially similar in that they sometimes participate in elections, parties in authoritarian states play a very different role. To borrow some terminology from IR theory, they are primarily interested in maintaining power, rather than serving the best interest of their constituent (if you can call it that, since their electoral decisions apparently have very little impact on the party) populations.

King describes a number of ways in which ruling parties have redirected economic reform to suit their own interests, and there is a plethora of examples of the powers that be using elections as a way of legitimizing their power. In the context of political systems, this tendency is logical because, once again, a ruling elite is ostensibly interested in maintaining their status by denying other people the opportunity to run the country. Moreover, their desire to stay in power is also reinforced by their ability to do so; it seems to me that the chances of lower class citizens manipulating economic reform to their own benefit is rather slim.

The sum of it all is that political parties play an important role in the persistence of authoritarianism in MENA. They have the means and the motive to reconstruct legal systems and manipulate affairs in their respective countries such that they maintain their grasp on power. It is also important to note that parties have played an increasing role in authoritarianism since the outside world began putting greater pressure on non-democratic states to liberalize; in many cases, the ruling class has been quite content to put on a good show and appear democratic by forming parties rather than cabals of military leaders in order to please the West.