| dc.description.abstract | Nearly four years have passed since the world witnessed a series of anti-government
protests, uprisings and armed rebellions across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region
called the ‘Arab Spring’. Few significant questions that are often asked include the followings:
Was the Arab Spring a success or a failure? Why did it happen? And why is it important that it
happened? I will argue that the Arab Spring has contributed to a few positive and to several
negative outcomes in the short run, due to the strong coercive apparatuses of the countries
involved and to their weak institutions, in addition to international factors. In addition, I will also
argue that from a long-term perspective, the Arab Spring might eventually be credited with
bringing democracy to the region like the French Revolution did in 1789. The unrest first began
in Tunisia in December 2010, when the self immolation of a local vendor sparked countrywide
protests that soon spread to neighboring countries such as Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and
at a later stage to Syria, Yemen, Bahrain, Lebanon, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Iran, Iraq and to
some extent Sudan. Focusing on the uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, my thesis claims that
the Arab Spring has in the short term resulted in more negative than positive aspects. The Arab
Spring can be considered successful in terms of ending unaccountable governments and
dictatorships such as those of Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt and Gaddafi in Libya; in
enhancing the political participation of parties that were not prominent in former regimes; and in
promoting freedom of expression in the Arab World. However, the Arab Spring has also led to
divisions on the basis of religion and along sectarian lines (especially Sunni and Shiite), in armed
conflict and in the civil wars in Libya and Syria. It has also brought about militias, regional
political instability (with political killings) and economic fragility (with a decline in economic
growth for the whole MENA region). I conclude that in the same way as France and Western Europe took several centuries to become democratic and to move from dictatorship to
democracy, the MENA region eventually has the potential to become democratic in the long run. | en_US |
