SUBLIME investigates the recent shift affecting the cornerstone of the Welfare States in the MENA : the universal subsidies on food and energy. The two waves of uprisings in the region – 2011 and 2019 – have made social justice a central issue. In this context, international donors and new regimes called for the renewal of ‘social contracts’ and pushed for the removal of subsidies and their replacement with targeted cash transfer programs. However, the lift of subsidies is a crucial political-economic dilemma, as it causes price increases on basic commodities and raises the risk of new revolts. In the eyes of policy-makers, but also of many scholars, subsidies appear as an instrument of political subordination that produces consent among citizens who would resign themselves to an authoritarian but protective order – and symmetrically would be likely to rebel if prices were to soar.