This research project aims to conduct a comparative study of Hamas and al-Nahda while in office in Palestine and Tunisia. As Muslim Brotherhood organisations, Hamas and al-Nahda managed to survive repression, win elections, ascend to office and form governments. To address their resilience, this research proposal will focus on al-Nahda and Hamas’s organising structures, human capital and overall narratives. The research will examine the learning and training of their cadre and the formation of leadership as well as how their members come to occupy functional positions within their organisational hierarchy and executive branches while in opposition. This serves to explain how al-Nahda and Hamas maintain the continuity and public outreach that resulted in their electoral victories. The research then focuses in on the way in which these institutions and qualified cadre facilitated al-Nahda and Hamas’s transitional adaptation to new political and administrative roles and forms of local governance while in office. Drawing on theories of state and organisations, the research contributes to the growing body of work on Muslim Brotherhood groups in the Arab Mashriq as well as the Maghreb and opens comparative avenues of study on how Hamas has so far managed to survive in office while al-Nahda did not.