Heritage and Government Participation: A Study on the Disproportionate Palestinian-Jordanian Representation Within the Jordanian State Apparatus

Abstract: Jordan is the only Arabic country that has granted full citizenship to all its Palestinian residents, who now constitute half the population and dominate the private sector. Although a reasonable expectation would be that Palestinian-Jordanians hold half of all governmental positions, a 1997 survey reported much lower representation. This thesis attempts to investigate current (early 2009) Palestinian-Jordanian representation within the state apparatus, the institution that shaped it, and how Palestinian-Jordanians and Transjordanians frame this representation. Through a field study made in Jordan, this thesis found that Palestinian-Jordanians are still underrepresented. No public discussion is held on the topic, but there seems to be a general ambiance toward this uneven representation. The notion of path dependency helps explain how the policy of preferential recruitment of Transjordanians into the political establishment—which emerged in response to the civil war in 1970—became a self-reinforcing institution. Interviews with 15 Jordanian academics and public officials revealed how views of government representation varied. While the Transjordanian elite frame it as fair, Palestinian-Jordanians frame their underrepresentation as discrimination. Since both frames and institutions are self-reinforcing, this thesis concludes that Palestinian-Jordanians will most likely continue to be underrepresented in Jordanian public life unless the contextual setting changes.