In the post-Arafat era, dramatic changes took place in the Palestinian polity and system of governance. These transformations have created a new style of governance and state-building in the West Bank, Fayyadism. This home-grown even though externally sponsored style of governance has been deeply influenced by donor’s prescriptions and funds. It is aimed at establishing a Weberian style of monopoly of violence and a neo-liberal economic agenda; as the two fundamental pillars for the Palestinian state despite the Israeli occupation and the intra-Palestinian fragmentation. The ‘success’ of these institutional reforms allowed the international community to testified the Palestinian Authority (PA) ability to govern and acquire statehood. However, this paper aims to understand to what extent these claimed institutional successes at the PA level were reflected on the ground and enjoyed by ordinary people in the West Bank? In other words, deconstructing the Fayyadism paradigm from below through echoing citizens voice by using a bottom-up citizen-centric approach. This paper will utilize a first-hand gathered empirical evidence from the West Bank, in particular from Jenin refugee camp.

Paper presented at The Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Annual Convention, April, Chicago 2013.

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