A critical analysis of the Arab Spring: Case studies of Tunisia and Egypt

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2015-9

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Abdulsattar, Tammam Omer

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Arab Spring is a political concept that spread widely in the media and academic art publications. This concept is used as an indication to a wide range of uprisings in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the past two years; which started in Tunisia and swept through Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, Yemen, and Syria. However, when looking closely at what happened, we see that there is a misusage of the concept of Arab Spring in describing the uprising. In its current usage the concept does not have any analytical value, but just a descriptive category and it is a European originated concept. Thus, this thesis will critically analyze the concept and its origin and its usefulness as an analytical tool to understand the uprising in the MENA region. The thesis questions the dominant view that the uprising is conducive to bring about democracy to the region. When examining the uprising in the region, specifically Tunisia and Egypt, it is necessary to keep in mind the diversity of the countries in which each country has different dynamics and structures. This fact is the main reason for choosing these two countries as case studies. Socio-Economic, social and political factors that have existed in these countries before the uprising play a crucial role in determining the uprising and its consequences. So for example, Tunisia is slowly moving towards building a new system and it is relatively in a better shape than others, while Egypt is experiencing terrible conditions from the social division and violent cycle after the military coup and still in turmoil. So the question here is why? Why Tunisia and Egypt which share commonalities like language, religion, history of oppression and experienced same uprising have ended up differently?

Subject Keywords

Arab Spring, Socio-Economics Conditions, Democratization, MENA, Uprising

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https://hdl.handle.net/11511/69838

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Northern Cyprus Campus, Thesis

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Citation Formats

T. O. Abdulsattar, “A critical analysis of the Arab Spring: Case studies of Tunisia and Egypt,” M.S. - Master of Science, Middle East Technical University, 2015.