Scholarship on autocratic legislatures has moved beyond whether these bodies matter to the harder questions of what they do, for whom, and through what mechanisms. In Varieties of Power, Marwa Shalaby's major contribution is to show that a quota literature focused on women's numeric presence has often mistaken descriptive inclusion for political power. Her answer turns on what comparativists have largely overlooked: party institutionalization (PI), a feature of individual parties rather than of party systems. Much comparative work has treated party system institutionalization, a concept developed in democratic settings, as the key measure. Shalaby shows that even where party systems are weak or fragmented, individual parties may vary meaningfully in stability, platforms, constituency ties, and cohesion. Crucially, this variation, rather than quotas alone, shapes women's access to influential committees and to legislative voice.

The empirical foundation of the book is impressive. Shalaby draws on the Governance and Elections in the Middle East Project, which she founded, and analyzes nearly 22,000 parliamentary questions, more than 3,000 committee assignments, and 90 interviews. She includes three cases that are theoretically useful: Morocco combines gender quotas with relatively institutionalized parties, Jordan also has quotas but weaker p