The Arab Spring was a series of revolutions and mass protests against governments that took place in 2010-2012; it started at the end of 2010 in Tunisia, and then spread to the rest of the countries of the Arab world. The Arab Spring has played, and is still playing, an important role in the history of the region; the events started by the revolutions are still taking place.
It might be difficult to name the “major players” of this uprising due to the fact that it took place not between countries but inside countries. However, players can be grouped. Thus, the main sides which participated in the revolts were: the populations of the countries, consisting mostly of young people who were dissatisfied with their governments (although it is clear that “populations” participating in protests also were heterogeneous and had their own divisions) (Lesch and Haas n. pag.); the authoritarian governments; militias that supported the authorities; and counter-demonstrators.
It is important to point out that technologies played a crucial role in the revolution; the access to the Internet, mobile phones, and other similar devices provided the protesters with the possibility to communicate with each other by using such means as the social media, to plan and organize events and protests, and to respond to the actions of their governments. This is why the authorities of the affected countries made a significant effort to shut down the Internet and mobile communications during the revolutions (Howard and Hussain 10-14).
In spite of the fact that the revolutions were begotten by the indignant populations, the Arab Spring, unfortunately, caused conflicts for power between Shia and Sunni Muslims, civil wars, a large degree of instability, and great amounts of violence in the region. It is also stated that the protests were hijacked by the Islamists and turned into religious conflicts in many cases (Bradley 2). The conflicts had a number of consequences connected to the nation-state boundaries in the region; for instance, the war in Syria allowed for the emergence of Rojava (also called Syrian Kurdistan), an anarchic-like political formation created by the Kurdish people and based on the principles of environmental sustainability, egalitarianism, and direct democracy, gender equality, etc. (“The Constitution” n. pag.).
As for the revolutions’ effect on the international relations of the region, it is stated that the revolts which took place in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and Yemen did not have a disruptive effect on the international relations of these countries with other states (Katz 1). On the other hand, such countries as Syria and Bahrain suffered a serious setback in the field of international relationships due to the revolutions (Katz 3).
It is also noteworthy that the region had been considered one of the least democratic ones in the world before the Arab Spring started (Lesch and Haas n. pag.), so the revolutions were met with international support. On the other hand, due to the political unrest, international investments in the region became less popular. Also, there have been interventions aimed at changing the course of events in the region in order to obtain political and economic advantage conducted by the U.S. (AbuKhalil n. pag.); however, virtually no direct international military interventions took place.
To sum up, it is worth stressing that the Arab Spring was an important series of revolutions that had a significant influence on the political, economic and social situation in the region. It has raised a number of issues and problems inside both the affected countries and outside of them, internationally, it was met mainly with the support for the protesters.
Bradley, John R. After the Arab Spring: How Islamists Hijacked The Middle East Revolts. New York, NY: Macmillan, 2012. Google Books. Web.
Howard, Philip N., and Muzammil M. Hussain. Democracy’s Fourth Wave? Digital Media and the Arab Spring. New York, NY: Oxford University Press, 2013. Google Books. Web.
When it comes to building civil society in a particular country, it is crucially important to be mindful of the whole scope of the would-be affecting social, political, and cultural circumstances. If this discursive provision is not observed throughout the process’s entirety, the concerned undertaking will be likely to sustain an utter fiasco. In my paper, I will aim to substantiate the validity of this suggestion at length, regarding what used to account for the primary challenges of establishing such a society in Libya in the past.
I will also outline the contemporary impediments in the way of trying to achieve this objective, on the part of the country’s post-2011 governmental authorities while keeping in mind that nowadays, there are at least two competing governments in this country, with each of them claiming to be the only legitimate one.
Civil society defined
One of the major challenges within the context of researching the conditional state of civil society in a particular country is the fact that there is no universally accepted definition as to what the term “civil society” stands for. Nevertheless, it is possible to identify two major conceptual trends that provide an axiomatic framework for defining this specific term, which can generally be categorized as Classic and Neoliberal.
Social scientists affiliated with the first trend believe that secular civility constitutes the foremost precondition for the normal functioning of civil society and that there are many qualitative dimensions to the concerned process. In its turn, civility is best defined as the societal condition that presupposes the undisputed primacy of impersonal law, as the instrument for eliminating intra-social tensions, the operational integrity of state institutions (which enables lawfulness), the possibility of social lifting for citizens (regardless of the specifics of their ethnocultural/religious affiliation), the citizens’ comparative prosperity and their ability to take an active part in governing the country (political participation). Among the additional preconditions, in this respect, are also commonly mentioned the citizens’ endowment with the genuine (not formal) sense of nationhood and the country’s well-established traditions of statehood.
According to the proponents of the Classic outlook on what civil society is all about, such society’s existence serves a well-defined operative purpose:
to bridge the specific identities of different communities;
to find a balance between conflicting norms;
to orient procedures for handling conflicts of interests so that they do not escalate” (Rucht, 2011, p. 387).
Hence, some of the main indications of a particular society remaining on the path of civility: “self-control”, “compassion”, “tolerance”, “justice” and “economic prosperity” (Rucht, 2011). This, of course, implies that the term “civil society” is essentially synonymous with the notion of “statehood”, because it is namely the efficient functioning of state institutions, which allow ordinary citizens to have a voice, within the context of how the government goes about enacting various policies in the country. In its turn, this empowers citizens as the active participants of the governing process.
The advocates of the Neoliberal conceptualization of civil society have a somewhat different point of view, in this respect. It presupposes that the existence of civil society has very little to do with the concept of statehood (in the conventional sense of this word) and that the former merely connotes the presence of the Western-based Transnational Advocacy Networks (TANs) and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in the society, as well as the local authorities’ willingness to affiliate themselves with the “collective West” and to indulge in the well-meaning (but essentially meaningless) rhetoric about the importance of protecting “human rights”, “animal rights” and now “gay rights”.
Hence, the term’s Neoliberal definition, “Civil society is… a convenient shorthand term to refer to the organizations of non-profit interest groups which form to assert interests and causes outside state-based and controlled political institutions, which constitute networks of action and knowledge (TANs and NGOs)” (Deirdre,1999, p. 446). This, of course, presupposes that the notion of civil society has very little to do with the notion of statehood. The proponents of “democratization” often suggest that the civil society’s members are naturally opposed to the “sheer oppressiveness” of governmental institutions, which are there to ensure the integrity of the country’s statehood.
Consequently, this implies that the notion of civil society has the value of a “thing in itself”. This presupposes the possibility of such a society’s creation in the Second and Third World countries, without any regard given to the ethnocultural, historical, and religious traditions/customs of them would be affected populations – all for as long as the mentioned TANs and NGO’s are allowed to operate on the locale.
As Jebnoun (2015) pointed out, “International peacebuilders have adopted the principles of liberal democracy and market-oriented economics in an attempt to transfer the Western liberal-democratic institutions, values, and norms to the weak, peripheral countries” (p. 834). Given the fact both mentioned outlooks on the essence of social civility are considered equally legitimate, it will make much sense referring to the affiliated conceptual provisions while researching this paper’s subject matter.
Analysis
Monarchy (1951-1969)
For anyone who strives to gain a better understanding of the main challenges in the way of building civil society in Libya, it will come rather indispensable familiarizing himself/herself with the thematically relevant facts from Libya’s history. Probably the main of them has to do with the fact that the concerned country is essentially an artificial geopolitical entity and as such, it could not have had any strong statehood-legacy by definition. As Geha and Volpi (2016) noted, “Libya is a former colony of Italy that progressively acquired its independence after the end of the Second World War. Under Ottoman rule before the Italian conquest in 1911, Libya had no parliamentary institutions” (p. 690).
By the time the UN granted Libya independence (1951), the country was nothing short of a conglomerate of some sparsely populated territories in Northern Africa. These territories’ residents used to be endowed with the strong sense of tribal solidarity – something that represented a major obstacle in the way of establishing and preserving Libya’s statehood, and something that even today continues to hurt the government’s attempts to reconcile the country’s citizens on the ground of their presumed willingness to adhere to the values of the Libyan way of life.
Following Libya’s declaration of independence in the mentioned year, the country was proclaimed a constitutional monarchy (headed by King Idriss Al-Sanussi), with its legislative body having been declared the National Assembly. The year 1951 also marked the enactment of the country’s first constitution, which contained provisions for recognizing the regionally defined tribal differences between the Libyans, on one hand, and ensuring that the would-be undertaken process of national unification will have a secular (civil) quality to it, on the other.
While referring to the specifics of political governing in Libya through the years 1951-1969, Pargeter (2012) stated, “Given the divergent interests of the different regions, and particularly those of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania, what emerged was a complex and cumbersome political system, comprising a parliament, a federal government, and powerful provincial councils” (p. 34).
Thus, it will be thoroughly appropriate to suggest that the mentioned historical period represented the initial phase of building civil society in Libya. After all, it was specifically through the fifties and sixties that the Libyans acquired the initial taste of what it feels like living in the society ruled by an impersonal/secular law. Initially, Idriss Al-Sanussi proved himself a capable ruler while mediating disputes between the tribally distinctive groups within the country.
However, by the late sixties, it became quite apparent for many political analysts in the West that the country was about to experience a social upheaval. What contributed the most, in this respect, is that since the discovery of substantial oil deposits in Libya in 1963, the country’s GDP continued to increase rather dramatically. By the year 1969, Libya became the world’s fifth-largest exporter of oil. Nevertheless, even though this specific development did result in making it possible for many Libyans to begin enjoying a much better standard of living, which in theory should have strengthened the country’s monarchic regime, this was far from being the case.
The reason for this had to do with the rapid growth of the population of educated Libyans, endowed with a secular (non-tribal) mentality, and committed to the cause of Pan-Arabism. It was specifically these individuals (belonging to the Free Officers Movement headed by Muammar Gaddafi) who in 1969 overthrew King Idriss Al-Sanussi and proclaimed the creation of the Libyan Arab Republic.
Republic/Jamahiriya (1969-2011)
Ever since what later became known as the Libyan Revolution of 1969, the country’s self-appointed government (Libyan Revolutionary Command Council) declared its intention to affiliate the country’s societal paradigm with the ideology of Socialism. In his numerous speeches through the seventies, Muammar Gaddafi never ceased promoting the essentially Socialist ideas, concerned combating poverty, ensuring that ordinary people are entitled to have a share in the national wealth, eliminating illiteracy, etc. At the same time, however, he also used to stress out the importance of adjusting the implementation of the quasi-Socialist internal policies to be consistent with the population’s traditional values, “A society has fundamental laws derived from either tradition or religion.
This is what constitutes the moral code for a society” (Gaddafi, 1983, p. 34). As time went on, however, Gaddafi’s political rhetoric continued to acquire a somewhat anarchist sounding – the trend that became especially apparent after the Libyan Republic’s transformation into the Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in 1977. According to Geha and Volpi (2016), “After 1977 in particular, the structure of government in its traditional legal-bureaucratic sense was dismantled, and the ‘people’s authority’, exercised through people’s congresses and committees was proclaimed” (p. 693).
In reality, however, this development was meant to serve the purpose of strengthening Gaddafi’s dictatorial powers. He declared himself to be the lifelong Leader of the Revolution and the General Secretary of the General People’s Committee – the organization that assumed both legislative and executive governmental functions in the country.
As a result, even though the chosen form of governance by Gaddafi implied that just about any Libyan citizen was in the position to participate in the decision-making process by the Committee (Jamahiriya can be translated as “people’s rule”), post-1977 Libya has been effectively turned into the classic dictatorship of the worst kind with Gaddafi having realized himself being in the position to exercise an undisputed authority within Libyan society.
In this respect, Bhardwaj (2012) came up with a valuable observation, “After the 1969 coup, Muammar Gaddafi’s purportedly socialist political system of Jamahiriya razed civil society and centralized the government around Gaddafi’s sultanic rule, characterized by an underlying monopoly of processes by his cult of personality” (p. 82). The members of the General People’s Committee were also the members of Gaddafi’s clan (Nur Aischa), which explains why most of them continued to remain personally loyal to the “Leader” right until his deposal in 2011.
Throughout the entirety of Gaddafi’s rule, the instances of public dissent with the country’s de facto dictatorial form of governance used to be dealt with quickly and ruthlessly. For example, it is now estimated that at least 1270 inmates (with the substantial share of political prisoners among them) in the Abu Slim prison had been executed without a trial in the aftermath of the 1996 riot – the event that continued to be denied by Gaddafi’s regime until 2009 (Hilsum, 2012). This, of course, suggests that during Gaddafi’s reign, civil society in Libya was virtually non-existent, especially if assessed through the lenses of the Neoliberal conceptualization of such a society.
At the same time, however, Gaddafi did succeed in bringing certain elements of statehood-based civility to the country’s public domain. In this regard, it needs to be mentioned that under Gaddafi the sectarian/tribal tensions within Libyan society were kept effectively suppressed, which in turn made possible the prevalence of law and order throughout the country – quite an accomplishment, given the fact that as Jebnoun (2015) pointed out, “Gaddafi inherited a society where people were more inclined to identify themselves with their respective provinces, cities, towns, and villages than with Libyan nationhood” (p. 839).
His second achievement, in this regard, was turning Libya into one of the most economically developed countries in Africa, in which most citizens used to enjoy an unprecedented (by African standards) level of prosperity – not the least because of the regime’s commitment to the idea of building a “welfare state” in Libya. According to Bajrektarevic (2011), “(Under Gaddafi), Libya was the most developed African state, and a provider of solid jobs for many in the region, including Egyptians and Tunisians – over half a million of their guest-workers” (p. 100). It is understood, of course, that this used to contribute rather substantially towards fostering the secular sense of national identity in Libyan citizens, which has been traditionally referred to as the load-bearing cornerstone of civil society.
The foremost discursive implication of this suggestion is that Libya would probably be much better off, had it not been chosen as the target of yet another “Arab Spring” revolution by the powerful players in the arena of international politics, such as the US and its regional allies (Saudi Arabia and Qatar). After all, as the examples of China and Russia indicate, the successful transformation of the totalitarian society into the more or less democratic one can only prove successful if evolutionary (as opposed to revolutionary).
Even as far back as in 2009, Gaddafi decided to allow the gradual liberalization of the public sphere in Libya – the development that would eventually result in the peaceful replacement of dictatorship with democracy in Libya, without the cost of reducing this formerly prosperous country into the battleground of the ongoing civil war of everybody against everybody, which proved to be the ultimate consequence of the Libyan 2011 “Arab Spring” revolution. As Bajrektarevic (2011) aptly predicted, “The post-Gaddafi Libya will be – unfortunately – a territory.
It will be a mare space of the grave political, territorial, economic, and social problems, energized by a growing and nearly self-perpetuated sectarian violence” (p. 101). This once again shows that the process of building/preserving civil society is not quite as straightforward as many people in the West tend to assume. In the next part of this paper, I will explore the validity of this idea at length, regarding the post-2011 developments in Libya.
Civil disorder (2011 – present day)
Following the murder of Muammar Gaddafi by the crowd of “fighters for freedom” (Western term) in 2011, the main obstacle in the way of building civil society in Libya appeared to have been effectively eliminated. As Sharqieh (2013) noted, “Libyans cheered for the collapse of the Qaddafi regime and embraced their long-overdue freedom” (p. 3). In the same year, the National Transitional Council (TNC) announced that in 2012 there were going to be held all-national elections to the General National Congress (GNC), which in turn would be put in charge of drafting the country’s new Constitution.
Simultaneously, since the fall of Gaddafi’s dictatorship, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of foreign-based NGOs operating in Libya, “Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) have mushroomed in post-2011 Libya thanks to newly acquired freedoms” (Mikail, 2013, p. 1). At the time, these organizations assumed the responsibility of helping TNC to make sure that the scheduled political elections would be thoroughly transparent and procedurally legitimate, “Nongovernmental organizations like the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES) worked with the Libyan electoral commission to register voters, design and implement an electoral formula, and stage the polls” (Chivvis & Martini, 2014, p. 41).
However, it was only in the year 2014 that such elections took place – the development that (ironically enough) proved strongly detrimental to the cause of preserving the unity of Libyan society and keeping it interested in the ideals of democracy, “By the summer of 2014 fighting had broken out between forces loyal to the outgoing GNC and those loyal to the newly elected congress” (Geha & Volpi, 2016, p. 688).
Ever since then, the sociopolitical situation in Libya began to deteriorate rapidly, which in turn resulted in triggering the outbreak of the civil war in the country between the supporters of the most powerful warlords from TNC. As of 2015, there were no fewer than two different governments in Libya controlling the country’s different areas and calling each other illegitimate.
While describing the state of societal affairs in Libya as of that year, Perroux (2015) stated, “Two parliaments and two governments – neither of which is exercising any significant control over people and territory; two coalitions of armed groups confronting one another…” (p. 1). Jebnoun (2015) provides even more shocking account as to what it feels like living in today’s Libya, “Today Libya is more fragmented than ever, often functioning as a cluster of ragtag armed groups controlling swaths of territory, administrating entire cities and districts, running their security and detention facilities, occupying oil fields…” (p. 833).
It is understood, of course, that because of this the idea that the Libyan Revolution of 2011 did contribute towards helping the Libyans to build civil society appears utterly arrogant at best. Just as it has been the case with Somalia for about forty years now, today’s Libya (as a sovereign country) exists only on paper. Given the fact that the West used to provide strong support to TNC ever since the organization’s establishment, there can be only a few doubts that it does share collective responsibility for the destruction of Libya’s statehood – the main reason why nowadays the idea that it is still possible to build civil society in this country sounds more like a bad joke.
Partially, this explains why it now became a commonplace practice amongst Western politicians/governmental officials and their collaborators from the Gulf monarchies to avoid mentioning Libya, as if this country never existed. The failure of democracy in Libya is usually considered reflective of “the complexity of the post-conflict reconstruction process” (Sharqieh, 2013, p. 3). There is, however, a much more logically sound explanation of the phenomenon.
The foreign-based supporters of Libya’s “democratization” have failed to take into account the fact that, “The plain concept of Arab civil society, far from being neutral, conceals normative assumptions that reflect the impossibility of imposing a singular model of political change” (Yom, 2005, para. 32). As for Libya, this country is likely to continue descending into civil chaos – the country’s richness in natural resources alone predetermines the viability of this prediction.
After all, the de facto absence of central government in Libya presupposes that these resources can be claimed by Western transnational corporations with ease – even though the local warlords exercise formal control over the country’s oil fields. This shows that the old principle “divide and conquer” continues to define the actual dynamics in the arena of international relations.
Conclusion
In light of what has been said earlier, it will be appropriate to suggest that the failure of the undertaken attempts to build civil society in post-2011 Libya can be regarded as illustrative of the conceptual erroneousness of the Neoliberal outlook on what the concerned concept stands for. After all, in the aftermath of Gaddafi’s demise, it did not take too long for the numerous “democracy promoting” TANs and NGOs to find their way into the country – something that according to this outlook’s provisions should have resulted in providing a powerful boost to the democratization process in Libya.
Such an expected development, however, has never taken place. Quite to the contrary – ever since 2011, it is specifically the “law of the jungle” that defines social dynamics in this country. As a result, there can be no rationale, whatsoever, to think that it may still be possible to build civil society in Libya in any foreseeable future. Hence, the paper’s foremost discursive implication – the notions of “civil society” and “statehood” organically derive out of each other, which means that the idea that NGOs are the main facilitators of such a society’s well-being cannot be deemed even moderately credible. I believe that this conclusion correlates perfectly well with the paper’s initial thesis.
References
Bajrektarevic, A. (2011). Libya – the unbearable lightness of being, Africa. Contemporary Readings in Law and Social Justice, 3(1), 99-109.
Bhardwaj, M. (2012). Development of conflict in Arab Spring Libya and Syria: From revolution to civil war. Washington University International Review, 1(1), 76-97.
Chivvis, C., & Martini, J. (2014). Libya after Qaddafi: Lessons and implications for the future. Washington, DC: Rand Corporation.
Deirdre, C. (1999). Transparency and political participation in EU governance: A role for civil society? Cultural Values, 3(4), 445-471.
Gaddafi, M. (1983). The green book. Tripoli, Libya: Green Book World Center for Research and Study.
Geha, C., & Volpi, F. (2016). Constitutionalism and political order in Libya 2011-2014: Three myths about the past and a new constitution. The Journal of North African Studies, 21(4), 687-706.
Hilsum, L. (2012). Sandstorm: Libya in the time of revolution. London, England: Faber and Faber.
Jebnoun, N. (2015). Beyond the mayhem: Debating key dilemmas in Libya’s statebuilding. The Journal of North African Studies, 20(5), 832-864.
Mikail, B. (2013). Civil society and foreign donors in Libya. Arab Forum for Alternatives. Web.
Pargeter, A. (2012). Libya: The rise and fall of Gaddafi. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
Perroux, J. (2015). Libya’s untold story: Civil society amid chaos (Middle East Brief No. 93). Crown Center for Middle East Studies. Web.
Rucht, D. (2011). Civil society and civility in twentieth-century theorising. European Review of History/Revue Europeenne d’Histoire, 18(3), 387-407.
Various scholars define the term media variously, depending on their professional and personal orientation. Many of them, however, agree that media refers to a variety of information channels available in the society. In our society today, the media plays an important role in enlightening people on issues that influence their life, as well as those issues surrounding them.
Conventionally, the media gathers information, which is then passed on to the audience via different channels. The various channels used in passing the information include, among others, newspapers, television, and magazines. Depending on the form of media that is used, the information is passed to a large number of people within a relatively short period of time.
Another major role played by the media involves addressing the various social issues affecting members of the society. In the past, the media was seen as a platform through which people could spread their ideologies and beliefs to other members of the society (Dabashi, 2012). It is through the media that such issues as the need for gender equality and human rights are voiced and made public.
The media is also used as a tool for influencing opinion among members of the public. To this end, the coverage of issues by the media enlightens many people on the state of affairs in other parts of the world. The people can voice their opinion regarding what is happening in other parts of the world.
The media is also an important tool when it comes to enhancing accountability in the society. As a result of increased media independence in contemporary society, almost all matters and events are subject to media scrutiny. As a result, community leaders are kept in check and their activities monitored. The aim of such monitoring is to ensure that things are done in the right manner.
Leaders, on their part, can take advantage of the media to communicate their policies to the people. It is for this reason that media becomes an important aspect during elections in a democratic country. The leaders use the media to pass the message to their constituents. As a result of wide media coverage, information is passed over long geographical distances and to a large number of people.
The media played a significant role in the recent uprising in the Arab world. For example, it is believed that the demonstrations in Egypt were organized using messages passed over such online social platforms as Facebook and Twitter. The author of this paper seeks to show the role of Al-Jazeera in the recent revolutions in the Arab world.
The revolutions are famously referred to as the Arab Spring. The paper will especially focus on the role that Al-Jazeera played in the uprisings that were witnessed in Egypt. The author seeks to analyze the events leading to the ouster of long- serving Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak. The consequences of these uprisings in the country will also be addressed.
Thesis Statement
The role of the media in any given society cannot be fully comprehended.
The Role of Al-Jazeera in the Ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in Egypt
Al-Jazeera is a Qatar based satellite television channel. The channel succeeded the BBC Arabic Television (herein referred to as BBCATV). BBCATV was an experimental channel that was set up to update the world on the events that were taking place in the erstwhile ‘unexplored’ Arab world (Seib, 2005). Before the launch of the channel, the events taking place in the Arab world remained largely unknown to the rest of the world.
The channel gained international recognition back in the year 2001 after it carried a story depicting the attack orchestrated by the United States of America attack against Muammar Qaddafi. From that time, the channel has remained on the forefront, covering stories from all parts of the world, with special focus given to events taking place in the Arab world.
The channel has also been on the forefront in informing the world on the progress made during the revolutions that were dubbed the Arab spring. The media house covered the events that saw the exit of President Hosni Mubarak from Egyptian political world.
The revolution of the Arab Spring in Egypt is what commonly came to be popularly known as the Egyptian Revolution. The revolution started at the beginning of the year 2011 and was spread all over the country especially in the urban areas and most notably in the capital Cairo. At the start, the revolution was generally characterized by civil disobedience, resistance, as well as, a spate of labor strikes all over the country (Zayani, 2005).
Though the revolution was greatly inspired by the Tunisian revolution, a couple of legal and political issues fueled the protests in Egypt. The revolution having attained international recognitions, tens of media channels offered coverage to the proceedings in the country. One of the most vocal of the channels was the Al-Jazeera satellite channel.
A number of factors inspired the Egyptian Revolution. Key among the major reasons for the revolution was oppressive policies by the government. Prior to the revolution, the country was operating under Emergency Law for over thirty years (Lynch, 2012). Under the law, non-governmental political activities, such as demonstrations and picketing, were banned.
Even before the start of the revolution, the Al-Jazeera channel often highlighted the oppression of the Egyptian people by the Hosni Mubarak’s leadership. The police were used by the government as a tool to suppress any political revolutions in the country that saw the arrest and subsequent imprisonment of thousands of activists across the country without trial.
Al-Jazeera’s coverage of police brutality across the country fueled the protests in the country. Economic challenges across the country often as a result of corrupt government officials also angered the Egyptian people and were also a major cause of the revolution.
Corrupt elections, as well as, the manipulation of election results were also a major cause of the Egyptian revolution. Until the year 2005, Hosni Mubarak was the only candidate running for the presidency (Seib, 2005).
The Al-Jazeera channel coverage of a story behind the arrest and imprisonment of Ayman Nour, a presidential candidate just before the 2005 general elections saw people from all over the world condemn Hosni Mubarak’s style of leadership. To protect the government from criticism from the international community, Hosni Mubarak’s administration started censoring what was to be communicated over the media, as well as bloggers.
This was contrary to the freedom of speech that had been provided for in the Egyptian constitution. During the revolution, the government suspended media activities so as to curb the spread of revolutionary ideas. The Al-Jazeera channel was not spared either with the government ordering the close of its offices and further arresting six of the channels journalists. The Channels equipment was also seized thus disrupting coverage.
The Consequences of the Egyptian Revolution
The Egyptian revolution saw the deliverance of the people of Egypt from the oppressive leadership of Hosni Mubarak. The ouster of President Mubarak from power necessitated fresh elections to replace the just over thrown government. Al-Jazeera as a channel was in the forefront monitoring the progress in Egypt as well as to oversee the creation of a democratic system of governance.
Having a large audience from across the world, coverage of live events From Egypt ensured accountability by the new government (Dabashi, 2012). Steps were also taken against key leaders in the previous regime thus discouraging leaders from engaging in such acts of bad leadership in future. Mohamed Morsi was elected as the new president of Egypt.
Thought the success of the Egyptian revolution has brought hope that the country’s economy will soon recover from the effects of corruption practiced by Hosni Mubarak’s leadership, the revolution impacted negatively on the county’s economy (Korotayev & Zinkina, 2011). Property of an unknown worth was destroyed during the violent encounters of the demonstrators with the security forces.
The closure of businesses during the revolution also saw the government and members of the public lose billions as a result of trade disruptions (Bradley, 2008). Scores of reproductive people were also killed and other injured. Al-Jazeera was not spared either with its equipment being seized or destroyed by the government during the protests. The revolution however increased Al-Jazeera’s popularity and has contributed to the channels growth (Beinin & Vairel, 2011).
After months of demonstrations and civil disobedience against Hosni Mubarak’s, leadership, the war against the oppressive regime was won by the Egyptian people. The victory to the Egyptian people however came at a price with over 846 people being killed as the protestors crashed with law enforcers. Reports show that over six thousands Egyptians also attained serious injuries during the protests with others having acquired disabilities.
Footages from media houses particularly the Al-Jazeera showed security personnel use excessive force in a bid to stop protestors from carrying out their activist activities (Korotayev & Zinkina, 2011). The security agencies went to the extremes of using life bullets to disperse protestors.
The revolution was a source of misery to many families and the society at large since a large number of people were killed or injured during the violence (Bradley, 2008). Al-Jazeera journalists also had a share of the violence with many of them being caught up in the violence as well as facing arrests.
Conclusion
The role of media in the society cannot be overlooked. Besides being a communication tool, the media also plays an important role in influencing opinion among people. The coverage of the Egyptian story by the media enlightened the world on the proceedings in Egypt concerning the Egyptian revolution. After the Revolution, calm and peace slowly returned in the country.
Citizens however had to pay the price for their freedom through a lot of sacrifice. Many of them were killed and scores injured during the protests. The country’s economy at the time was also greatly severed. After months of the revolution, peace and calm prevailed and the Egyptians are striving to rebuild their country.
References
Beinin, J., & Vairel, F. (2011). Social movements, mobilization, and contestation in the Middle East and North Africa. Stanford, USA: Stanford University Press.
Bradley, J. (2008). Inside Egypt: The land of the Pharaohs on the brink of a revolution. New York, USA: Palgrave Macmillan.
Dabashi, H. (2012). The Arab Spring: The end of postcolonialism. New York, USA: Palgrave Macmillan.
Korotayev, A., & Zinkina, J. (2011). Egyptian revolution: A demographic structural analysis. Revista Interdisciplinar, 13(1), 139–165.
Lynch, M. (2012). The Arab uprising: The unfinished revolutions of the new Middle East. New York, USA: Public Affairs.
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The selected hypothesis of the study is the second one: facing a very harsh disappointment. The exposition of the hypothesis is that the Arab Spring failed to spread in Arabian states because the affected states performed poorly in achieving their objectives of protesting and received minimal support from states that supported the protest, thus causing a very harsh disappointment among the people. Therefore, the study hypothesizes that the citizens of the Arabian states who perceive the Arab Spring as unsuccessful are less willing to participate in protests in their own countries than the citizens who perceive Arab Spring as successful.
Independent variable
Perception of ‘successfulness’ of the Arabian Spring by citizens of Arabian states.
Dependent variable
Willingness to participate in a protest by the citizens of the Arabian states.
Research Design
The appropriate research design of the study is the cross-sectional design. A cross-sectional design is a type of survey that allows researchers to collect information from a given population or a sample of the population without consideration of any time bounds. As a type of survey research, the cross-sectional design is applicable in assessing the feelings, perceptions, and opinions of people about a given issue in a community or society. Since it deals with abstract information about feelings, opinions, and perceptions, the cross-sectional design permits qualitative collection and assessment of data, thus providing the basis of descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics are applicable in the analysis and interpretation of qualitative information. The perceptions of people about the success of the Arab Spring comprise qualitative data that the study needs to collect from the population and analyze. In this view, since the study examines the perceptions of the citizens of the Arabian states, a cross-sectional design is the appropriate design for the research.
Essentially, cross-sectional design entails the collection of data from a population sample by use of survey techniques such as questionnaires or interviews. In this case, the study will apply the technique of collecting information using questionnaires. The questionnaires are appropriate for this form of study because the population of study spreads across the Arab world, which is very extensive to conduct using interviews. The use of questionnaires is advantageous because they are simple to construct and easy to administer as they do not require a lot of resources. With the use of the Internet, the study can administer questionnaires to thousands of people in various countries via mail or social sites. Hence, given that the study targets people who are spread across the Arab world, the use of questionnaires administered via mails and social sites is appropriate for the study because it is cheaper and more convenient than other methods of data collection.
For an appropriate analysis of the data collected using questionnaires, designing of the questionnaire is imperative. The process of designing the questionnaire is usually a complex one as it requires a researcher to balance the simplicity of the questions and literacy levels of the target population. The questions in the questionnaire need to be very simple for the participants to understand because complex questions lead to unfavorable answers that reduce the reliability of the study. Hence, in this case, the use of the questionnaire allows the researchers to design their questions according to the attributes that measure perceptions of the people, an independent variable, which determines the willingness of the people to participate in protests, a dependent variable. Since perceptions of people constitute qualitative data, the use of the questionnaire permits the researcher to design a questionnaire using a Likert scale. The Likert scale is a scale that transforms qualitative data into quantitative data, which statistical tools can analyze. Therefore, the application of the questionnaire in the cross-sectional research design enables the transformation of qualitative data into quantitative data, which eases the process of data analysis using statistical tools.
The administration of questionnaires via mail and social sites is an advantage of the cross-sectional design because it enhances the proportion of responses, thus increasing the external validity of the research. Normally, the major problem associated with the use of questionnaires as research tools is low responses, which reduces the external validity of the research. However, in this case, since the study administers questionnaires using emails and social sites, it targets a significant proportion of the population who are in the Arabian states. Thus, the method of administering questionnaires to the target population enhances the responses and thus increasing external validity, which is central in the generalization of the study findings. Overall, the cross-sectional design is appropriate in assessing the perceptions of people concerning the success of the Arab Spring.
Specific Methods of Data Analysis
The study will use the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) in performing descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and correlation test. As a statistical tool, the study will use descriptive statistics in explaining the perceptions that people have regarding the success of the Arab Spring. Since the questionnaires have structured questions in the form of a Likert scale, descriptive statistics such as mode, median, standard deviation, and percentages are imperative. The mode provides the general perception of the dominant people in the Arabian states, while the median indicates the average perceptions of the people in general. The mode and mean are two measures of central tendency that the study will utilize to indicate the extent to which people in other Arabian states are willing to protest due to the successfulness of the Arab Spring in the affected countries. The standard deviation is another measure of central tendency that is integral in showing the variability in perceptions of the people regarding the successfulness of the Arab Spring. The variability of perceptions is important because it indicates whether people have a common or diverse perception of the success of the Arab Spring. Ultimately, the analysis of data using percentages enhances the interpretation of the collected data.
To test the hypothesis, the Chi-square test is an appropriate test. The Chi-square test is a statistical test that is applicable in testing hypotheses. The Chi-square test compares the expected willingness of the people to participate in protests and their perceptions regarding the successfulness of the Arab Spring. In this view, if the difference between expected and observed willingness to participate in a protest due to the perception of the successfulness of Arab Spring is huge, it means that there are not statistically significant relationships to warrant acceptance of the hypothesis. However, if the difference is small, it implies that willingness to participate is significantly dependent on the perceptions of the successfulness of the Arab Spring. Thus, Chi-square is a critical method of data analysis because the study expects that there is a significant variation between expected willingness and observed willingness.
Correlation is another statistical method that is necessary to establish the relationships between willingness to protest and perceptions of the successfulness of the Arab Spring. Correlation is an important test in the study because it shows the extent to which the two variables can correlate. As hypothesized, the study expects that perceptions of the successfulness of the Arab Spring determine the willingness of the people in various Arabian states to protest. A positive correlation indicates that the perceptions of the success of the Arab Spring influence willingness of the people to cause similar protests in their countries. In contrast, a negative correlation indicates that the perceptions of the protest have a negative impact on the willingness to protest. Thus, the study expects that the existence of correlation shows the extent to which perceptions influence willingness to protest among citizens in various Arabian states.
Implementation Timeline
The study will collect qualitative data from the citizens of the Arabian states who are in different places within the Arabian world. The use of questionnaires will enable the respondents to provide their perceptions regarding the success of the Arab Spring. Although the data that the study will collect is in qualitative form, structuring of questionnaires using the Likert scale converts the qualitative data into quantitative data for analysis purposes.
Given that the administration of questionnaires to the participants will occur through the Internet, the researchers do not need to travel. Instead, the researchers will use the Internet to link up with different people in various countries within the Arab world. Although there is not the cost of traveling, the research requires a website for it to recruit many people in the Arab world. Hence, the study requires about $500 for web design and $200 for hosting the website per month. Since the study is complex, taxing, and technical, the study will employ three research assistants who will aid in the online administration of questionnaires and in performing data analysis. Each of the research assistants will earn $300 per month.
The process of data collection is central in data analysis, and thus will take 15 days. During the 15 days, researchers will be busy contacting potential participants and requesting their participation in the study via the developed website. The researchers will also use social sites when recruiting the participants and directing them to the website where they can answer the questionnaires and submit them. Moreover, analysis of the data will take 5 days because it involves the use of the SPSS tool, which eases the complexity of analyzing descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and correlation test. To write and present the findings of the research, it will take 10 days. This means that the whole study will take a period of 30 days. Hence, if the researchers start the study on July 1st, it implies that by July 31st, the researchers will have finished collecting, analyzing, writing, and presenting the findings of the study.
Regarding the ethical issues of human participants, the study faces the issue of confidentiality and informed consent. Confidentiality is a critical ethical issue because an ethical study should assure the participants about the use of information in research. Given that it is an online survey, participants may have great reservations about the essence of the data that they provide. The Arab Spring caused a great impact on the lives of many people; hence, some may perceive the study as a foreign survey intended to cause protests in their countries. Informed consent is an ethical issue because some participants may perceive that the study entices and deceives them to fill questionnaires by providing false information about the research, thus violating the requirements of informed consent.
Arab spring is an anti-government opposition that occurred in North Africa and the Middle East. It is a revolution that caused changes within nations. It happened in many Arabian nations within the Middle East and those in North Africa.
Among countries that were touched by this revolution are Yemen, Syria, Libya, Tunisia, Egypt among others. The revolutions evolved in these nations as war between two conflicting groups, and it went far to touch on citizens at the lowest level. In Egypt, it started as a political revolt against the then reining president.
Revolts starts as demonstrations, first for few people then masses are out in the street in support of the side they choose. In many times, there are two strongly conflicting sides.
One side of these conflicts involves those who are keen to maintain the status quo while the other group targets to bring change. This paper explores the subject of Arab Spring using the case study of Libya, a country in North Africa. The conflict saw the then Libyan president overthrown from power.
In Libya, conflicts started as tension that had risen from the leadership of the late Mummar Gadhafi; he had a system of leadership that divided the citizens to make it easier to rule them. The citizens of Libya were left to fight for resources that were made scarce by Mummar’s government.
Libyans from the entire nation were kept away from benefitting from oil production in the country. Revolutions in a nation have political, social, and economic linkages. Members of a social group feel that they have been represented by the people in leadership or that their concerns are not put into considerations.
They cause a movement that stand in opposition of the government in attempt to acquire resources by force. This is what happened to the people of Beghazi in Libya who felt that the then president was not much concerned about them (Tempelhof and Omar 2).
Revolution in Libya was initiated by different groups that were opposed to the governance of President Mummar Gadhafi. These groups had no indications of planning the events that resulted in the conflicts. However, the groups had similar mission. They reinforced each other to attain what they wanted.
Some groups that were mentioned include civil society, youth movements and several rebel soldiers who defected from the government to join other militia groups who wanted change (Tempelhof and Omar 3-6).
Politics is used by leaders to divide people into smaller groups that are set against each other and, therefore, are unable to concentrate with the leadership. Ethnicity in Libya became a great cause of division. For example, the region of Misrata under the influence of political powers of anti-Gadhafi followers attacked their neighbors, Tawergha.
In the same way, the Zinatans attacked their neighbors in Mashashya village (International Crisis Group 2). Economic differences are players in the conflicts. In Libya west, Zuwarans were suffering from unequal government investment in their town as opposed to their neighbors in Jmail.
In the same issue, the Zuwarans claimed that their land was invaded by the newly settled Jmail and Rijdalin (International Crisis Group 6). Religious divide was not a big problem since Libya is more populated by Muslims.
In Libya, propaganda was propagated through the media that made groups in conflict to be more charged against their opponents. In two cases, the fighters within communities were cheated that their neighbors were arming to attack them.
These people were forced to arm themselves in response to threats they anticipated. For example, Surmans were convinced that Zintans were coming to rape their women and kill them (International Crisis Group 2).
The conflicts in Libya resulted in killing of many Libyans and destruction of property. The Libyans realized a new regime. In my view, social media contributes to escalation of conflicts. Media services cause transmission of information, which causes more division within the group in conflict.
Works Cited
International Crisis Group. “Divided We Stand: Libya’s Enduring Conflicts.” Middle East/North Africa Report N°130, 2012. Web.
The Arab spring is a wave of revolutionary protests and demonstrations that have been taking place in the Arab world since December 18th 2010.
The revolution has claimed entire regimes in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, as well as major protests in Bahrain, Yemen, Algeria, Jordan, Iraq, Oman, Morocco and Syria. There have been minor protests that were quelled by the governments of Lebanon, Sudan, Mauritania, Kuwait, Western Sahara and Saudi Arabia, by yielding to some of the demands of protestors. The Arab spring also inspired clashes in May 2011 at the borders of Israel.
The sustenance of the revolution has been credited to the sharing of civil resistance techniques by the protestors in the different Arab countries, where there were rallies, marches, demonstrations as well as strikes that were mainly organized and communicated through social media (Sakbani, 2011).
The awareness of the people due to the flow of information was always repulsed by the respective governments’ internet censorship and even total disconnection as was the case in Syria from 2008 to 2011 February. Where this has failed there has often been violent repression of the protests by government security forces, often with a considerable amount of casualties as well as counter demonstrations by the respective government supporters.
This paper seeks to explore the political situations, in regard to the internal policies established by the leaders of the Arab countries and specifically in Syria and Egypt that led to the Arab spring.
The Arab Spring
To understand the root cause and the process of the Arab spring, we have to first explore the conditions that triggered its inception. The Arab uprising was sparked by the self-immolation of a Tunisian by the name of Mohamed Bouaziz on December 18th 2010. He was protesting the unlawful arrest, corruption and ill treatment by the police amid the hard economic situation in the country.
The protests that followed thereafter were greatly successful, with the ousting of the then president of Tunisia, Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and this inspired similar protest in other Arab countries. The Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, resigned after there were 18 days of massive protests amid crackdowns by government security forces on the 11th of February 2011.
Other leaders, however, moved to quell the anger of the protestors by announcing that they would not context in the next elections, such as the Sudanese president Omar Al-Bashir and the Iraqi President Nouri Al-Maliki. King Abdullah of Jordan went ahead to sack two successive governments as the protests still continued.
Ali Abdullah Saleh, the president of Yemen, announced that he would resign in 30 days back on 23rd of April in a bid to quell massive protests that had rocked the country, but he later changed his mind and retracted the statement which has led to continued protests.
The Arab Spring in Egypt
The revolution in Egypt was mainly inspired by its success in Tunisia and it started on the 25th of January. The then to be presidential candidate, Mohamed ElBaradei had already warned government officials that there was going to be a revolutionary wave of protests similar to those in Tunisia, if the pleas of the people were not addressed.
It was, however, too late before the government of Egypt could take any action to salvage the situation as on 28th January at midnight, their attempts to stop the organization of the protests by blocking all internet access in the country did not work.
Though the social media was successfully crippled, the organizers still found new ways to encourage people to join them and the internet blockade was one of the reasons they cited as a motivation to increase their protests. In a bid to salvage the situation, President Mubarak appointed a new cabinet as well as a vice-president, who was the first in almost three decades.
Mubarak later gave the vice-president, Omar Suleiman the power to rule Egypt on 10th February, though this was followed by an official statement that he would still hold on to the presidency until the end of his presidential term.
This move was not taken well by the protestors as the demonstrations still intensified. The vice president later announced that Mubarak had resigned on the next day and he went ahead to transfer power to the Egyptian armed forces. This inspired a wave of celebrations across the country with the biggest being at Tahrir square.
The military then noticed that they were also facing resistance and went ahead to lift emergency laws that had been in place for thirty years. The army then dissolved parliament and suspended the constitution, then promised to organize free and fair elections in the next six months.
The armed forces went ahead to appoint a civilian by the name of Essam Sharaf, as the Egyptian prime minister on 4th March. This was greatly approved by the protestor and the protests reduced, though there were other small protests that continued in July with the complaints that the Essam Sharaf administration together with the armed forces supreme council was slow in establishing reforms in the institutions of governance, than expected.
The Arab Spring in Syria
The Syrian uprising started with a case of self-immolation that sparked protests all over the capital city on the 26th of January. The protestors’ main grievances were political reforms and the observance of their civil rights by the government (Sakbani, 2011). They also complained that the county had been in a state of emergency for the last 48 years since 1963.
The attempts by the protestors to organize a major demonstration dubbed ‘the day of fury’ was, however, not successful, but on the 6th of March, the arrest and torture of 15 children who were accused of having written some slogans that were against the regime, sparked even more protests.
Thousands of protestors who were against the Baathist regime that had ruled Syria since 1963, gathered in the cities of Deir Ez-Zor, Hama, Daraa, Al-Hasakah, Aleppo, and Damascus, with Daraa being the first to protest on the 15th of March after the release of Suhair Atassi, a politician who became the unofficial spokesperson for the protestors in the revolution. This was followed by reports that the government had arrested over 3,000 Syrians and there had been a lot of casualties as the government security forces shot at protestors.
The climax of the protest was on 18th April when almost 100,000 protestors sat at the Square of Horns to demand for the resignation of President Bashar Al Assad. The protests continued throughout the next three months with the government conducting harsh security crackdowns and military operations in the country, with the most violent incident occurring on the 31st of July when army tanks stormed cities and killed over 136 people.
Political Conditions That Triggered the Arab Spring in Egypt and Syria
The revolution was observed to have been motivated by two main issues: the economic hardships of the citizens of these countries; and the harsh laws that were in place that discouraged democracy. The triggering incident that occurred in Tunisia involved a man whose market stall had been confiscated and his complaints were that besides acquiring an education, selling vegetables was his only option to make a living.
Analysts have specifically pointed out that in Syria and Egypt, the prolonged economic stagnation, violation of human rights, as well as rampant corruption by government officials have led to the common citizens’ suffering, and hence the need for political change. There has been decades of under-development and even in some cases there is evidence of de-development as the established economic policies have failed, and institutions of governance broken or abused (Partridge, 2011).
The overall economic growth in the Arab world has been negative since 1971 and specifically the per-capita income of citizens of gulf countries like Syria has been reducing by almost 2.8 percent every year (Gershoni, & Jankowski, 2010).
The rampant corruption in Syria and Egypt has meant that those who are already rich or are in positions of power enjoy better quality of life while the poor suffer even more. This has led to a wide economic gap between the rich and powerful in these countries, and the poor.
However, what took the rest of the world by surprise is the flow of information on the economic conditions of these countries, as previously their dictatorial governments had ensured that they filtered any information on these countries and had declined to participate in any surveys (Tejel, 2009).
The inequality and the corruption in these countries is influenced by the fact that most of the economic centers are owned and managed by government institutions, hence, discouraging private entrepreneurship. In Egypt for instance, the government has ceded most of the economic control of the country to the military. This has ensured that the military owns most corporations where they employ retired military leaders and/or their immediate family and friends.
It is also observed that state companies consume almost all the financial credit available in Egypt, hence, forcing other family owned small and medium businesses to have to rely on un-informal means of funding which are often expensive and exploitative. This has diminished the business community and those who are in business have to sell their products at high prices which have contributed to high cost of living amid reducing incomes (Odugbemi & Lee, 2011).
The failure of economic policies in Syria and Egypt has contributed to high rates of unemployment as well as under-employment, which are more common for the young who have been the back bone of the uprisings.
The rampant corruption, regional conflict and dictatorial leadership has contributed greatly to companies’ thinking of only the short-term, as there is too much uncertainty in the region (Partridge, 2011). The same uncertainty has discouraged domestic investments and the revenues generated due to the rising commodity prices end up being transferred abroad. It has been identified that in Syria, local banks have had low capacities to the point of collapse.
The Arab spring was created in such a way that it suggests a new awakening among the citizens of Syria and Egypt, which would bring with it a new political and socio-economic order. This has suggested that the Arab world will never be the same again, and the autocratic and dictatorial governments that are still existent in the region, may only have a few years if not months before they come to an end if they don’t establish political, educational and socio-economic reforms.
Perhaps the most outstanding difference between the Arab spring and other uprisings, is the fact that the people are fueled by their need for dignified lives rather than the need for political superiority, as has been the case in sub-Saharan Africa and the Balkan states in the past (Ben-Meir, 2011). The passion of these people will probably not let any politically radical group to take power without receiving resistance from them.
Previously, there was a belief that the people in Syria and Egypt could not organize themselves and speak with one voice, as the regimes had discouraged any form of organization. However, this was not to be as the Syrians and Egyptians organized amid speculation with their governments believing that the voice of the people was too fractured, too radical, too politically immature and insignificant to make any impact or even to be taken seriously.
There was also the belief among the political class that the Arab authoritarian rule was going to continue for many decades to come as there was succession of governments among powerful families in most Arab countries, where the sons of the rulers inherited power from their fathers upon them leaving office, as was the case in Syria (Partridge, 2011).
The greatest weakness of these assumptions, as is evidenced in Syria, is that they did not put into consideration the greatly educated, informed and politically assertive youth of the country.
They still thought that the loyalty of the old generation to these regimes was to be transferred to the younger generation, and they always tried to promote this through their authoritarian rule that has been able to squash resistance fro the citizens for along time. This younger generation is greatly aware of their rights, and has a high appeal for democracy which was earlier profiled as an evil western propaganda that is against their Muslim religion (Press-Barnathan, 2009).
As far as the politics of Syria is concerned, the administration of President Assad has squashed the opposition since he came to power as it was the policy before during his father’s rule. This has seen anyone who exhibited political ideas that contradicted his party’s banned from travelling outside the country, arrested and even tortured to death by the police.
There have been reports of secret police units that have been used to quell any opposition through inhumane ways. The human rights watch groups in the Middle East have ranked Syria as number one in violations of human rights and this is said to be the greatest down fall of Assad’s legislation which has fueled the revolution in Syria.
Political Effects of the Arab Spring
The revolution has transformed the geo-politics of the region as it has been observed that the traditional understanding of the political environment of the region has been thrown out of balance.
It was previously believed that the politics of the region was defined by the difference in ideologies between those who were pro-western and those who were anti-western, or those who are Sunnis and those who were Shi’a, as well as the belief that it was based on the differences between the Arabs and the Jews, in the case of Israel and its neighbors.
It was, however, observed that the great inequalities or disparities in the qualities of life, between the authoritarian regimes and the citizens they ruled were the greatest motivations of the revolution (Gershoni, & Jankowski, 2010).
The ultimate political result of the revolution has been the great spotlight cast on authoritarian or dictatorial regimes, as they feel the pressure to restructure their legislative policies or face resistance from their citizens. Some like the Kuwaiti administration have, however, been able to quell the anger of their citizens by introducing subsidies and cash handouts.
Others, as is the case in Syria, have had to give fake promises of economic and political reforms (Lunnon, 2011). The young people, who were mostly idealists, utilized the loopholes that had been left by the governments’ belief that they could not organize and therefore were at ease.
Their skillful utilization of social media was particularly impressive as it surprised many with its success. There was also the use of nonviolent means to organize protests that took the governments by surprise as they did not know what to do with them since they had always figured out that due to their foolproof control of their territories and strong security agencies, any threat would probably have to be excessively violent.
Lastly, the quick and effective success of the revolution in Tunisia and Egypt worked to fuel the revolution even further as other countries realized that it is easy and possible to remove even the harshest dictators from power.
This has been the short-term change that has brought hope to the people of the Arab countries that there can be an end to authoritarian rule and they can enjoy both economic growth and their freedom. It has also served to warn other dictators like Bashar al-Assad of Syria, or would be dictators in other countries, that their end was near (Ben-Meir, 2011).
It has now dawned on many that, autocracies and monarchies in the Arab countries have an uncertain future as the young Arabs have disapproved any cultural obligations to these autocracies.
These young people are proponents of regional sovereignty that takes a pan-Arab approach that may not be viable for any western nation that sees this as an opportunity to assert their influence on the regime that comes after. The west has to basically take a back seat and watch as the Egyptian and the Syrians try to establish their own forms of government that they think suits their political ideologies as well as their religious and cultural background.
In as much as the army may be the final political arbiter in Egypt as has been the case since 1952, there is now a chance for liberals, Islamists, repackaged elements of the previous regime and leftists of various backgrounds, to gain control of, and even influence, the country’s parliament and the government, which was not the case under the ousted Mubarak government.
The success of the emerging institutions such as the Egyptian Federation of Independent Trade Unions may be evidence of this phenomenon, as they may set limitations to the young neo-liberal economic reform project (Odugbemi & Lee, 2011). The other group, besides the army that is probably going to lose much of the influence it enjoys in these nations, is the US government as their regional political clout diminishes with the ouster of the authoritarian governments that they were previously able to influence.
The US campaign on the Palestinian-Israel conflict will now enjoy less support or even resistance from the new governments that want nothing to do with the fetishes of the previous regimes, and will probably stay neutral (Shemesh, 2008). This is evidenced by the fact that the US is currently feeling the treat of a growing Iranian regional influence, as the foreign policies of Egypt are now reflecting previously unseen popular sentiments.
Economic Effects of the Arab Spring
In the long-term, the Arab world hangs in uncertainty as everyone is skeptical of the stability of the new systems of governance that will be put up to replace the fallen ones.
This is behind the further uncertainty of whether the desired democratic system of governance will even be established in the near future as it has been previously evidenced in other countries like Somalia, that the ouster of a government by the people may not necessarily be advantageous, as there might be an eruption of violence as different groups seek to assume leadership of the country.
This spring may sadly take too long to yield any fruits in some of these countries as traditional liberals, Islamic extremists, high ranking military personnel that still want to cling to power, ethnic groups, business elites and other religiously affiliated groups, compete against each other on the basis of their different ideologies that they all want to be adopted (Lunnon, 2011).
The revival of the respective economies may take a while, and it’s dependent on the success of the transitional period and the success of the next administration amid all the international scrutiny especially by the west.
The economic consequences of the Arab revolution have affected the entire world and have been especially brutal, to struggling economies of South East Asia and Africa as the prices of oil have shot up. This has brought with it an unprecedented increase in the prices of basic commodities especially food stuffs.
There is, however, hope that with the successes of most of the protests, the oil market in the world will stabilize soon. This is not to say that there is no future threat to the oil market in the horizon since there is still an uncertainty as to how the new regimes will react in relation to the policies and the policy making process of OPEC, which is a body that most of them belong to.
Gershoni, I., and Jankowski,J., P. (2010). Confronting fascism in Egypt: dictatorship versus democracy in the 1930s. London: Stanford University Press.
Press-Barnathan, G. (2009). The political economy of transitions to peace: a comparative perspective. New York: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Sakbani, M. (2011). The revolutions of the Arab Spring: are democracy, development and modernity at the gates? Contemporary Arab Affairs. 4(2). Web.
Shemesh, M. (2008). Arab politics, Palestinian nationalism and the Six Day War: the crystallization of Arab strategy and Nasir’s descent to war, 1957-1967. London: Sussex Academic Press.
Tejel, J. (2009). Syria’s Kurds: history, politics and society. Volume 16 of Routledge advances in Middle East and Islamic studies. New York: Taylor & Francis.
Several Arab countries have witnessed a turning point in recent years, characterized by riots and demonstrations, stretching from North Africa to the Middle East. These protests and transformations were first witnessed in Tunisia towards the end of 2010 and largely spread in 2011 to several countries, in what was later referred to the Arab Spring.
Importantly, these protests led to varying degrees of reforms and transformation of different nations, say, toppling of powerful leaders who had served for decades. Among those who have been toppled include Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak of Egypt (Anderson 2). Unlike these two who were mainly overthrown as a result of demonstrations, Libya’s Muammar Gaddafi was killed after several months of riots and violence.
In the understanding of the Arab Spring, many people have concluded that it was influenced by a series of factors, like rising prices of commodities and the inspiration, which other nations derived from Tunisia and Egypt. In other words, the first countries to experience the demonstrations set the pace for several Middle East and North Africa states.
As a result, they got inspired that it was possible to transform the political leadership of their countries through demonstrations (Anderson 2). Additionally, there were other factors, which contributed to the uprisings across the Arab World, even though most of the nations have regained some stability, apart from Syria, which is experiencing antigovernment riots.
Importantly, the Arab Spring has led to a wide-range of effects, some of which haunt other countries of the world due to intertwined economic factors. This paper explores the factors, which triggered the demonstrations, the nature of the riots, the aftermath of the events, and some of the lessons that the world has learnt from the uprisings.
History of the Arab Spring
Even though these events and demonstrations are collectively referred to as the Arab Spring, it has been argued that some of the events going on in the Middle East are not purely Arab phenomenon since they are connected with other factors.
In essence, every country, which has witnessed the protests, presents different situations and citizens have varying reasons that caused them to push for reforms in their nations (Anderson 3). While the events, which have been witnessed during the Arab Spring, are considered to be connected, it is necessary to analyze the cases individually, since some of them do not affect the entire region.
It has been debated that the desperate act committed by Mohamed Bouazizi in Tunisia widely contributed to the uprising in the North African country, before spreading to other nations. Mohamed Bouazizi captured the attention of other citizens and the rest of the world.
Even though Mohamed Bouazizi was a vegetable vendor, he had a university degree and chose hawking because of the high level of unemployment in Tunisia (Amin et al. 31). On December 17, 2010, it was reported that the police took away Mohamed Bouazizi’s cart unfairly, arguing that he did not have a legal license to run the business.
Nevertheless, the step that Bouazizi took is what left millions of citizens and the rest of the world in shock; he lit himself outside a major government building and died. This sparked intense protests in the country, which later spread to other states in the Middle East, where Syria has become one of the most affected countries, with several efforts to tame the violence having been futile.
Timing of the Arab Spring
It is doubtless that the Arab Spring triggered the mind of various authors and experts to find out numerous facts about the issue. For example, the question, which most people have continuously asked is the timing of the uprising. In this context, the challenge has been to explain why the uprisings started in the year 2010 and not any other year. In some cases, it has been argued that the protests were predicted before by social theorist as they attempted to discuss the causes of uprisings and instability in the world (Amin et al. 32).
However, an array of factors came into play, including high fuel and food prices, high levels of unemployment, massive repression, and poor political and leadership structures. Other international factors like the role of the United States in the Arab World also came into play, allowing the situation to be more complex, as most of the affected countries remained under the oppression of dictatorial leaders.
Even though the uprising was inevitable in the Arab World, other factors like the electronic media came into play, especially in mobilizing youths and spreading propaganda. Various organizations turned out to be channels of information, including universities and mosques, which played a crucial role in connecting the country with what was going on (Amin et al. 32).
In other words, access to information did not depend on the willingness of the government to inform its people or not. However, it is important to note that the social media has been effectively used in these countries as a facilitator and not as a driving factor.
Causes of the Arab Spring
The Arab Spring was caused by intertwined factors; no single factor can be used to explain the causes of the uprisings in the Arab World. It is also important to note that most of these countries have witnessed protests before even though the causes have never been organized as witnessed recently in North Africa and the Middle East.
This explains why most of the previous attempts by citizens to topple these governments were unsuccessful in the past, say in Tunisia and Egypt. Based on this analogy, it is possible to link the success of the Arab Spring to several factors, which have provided a united force and impact in the world (Cordesman 2).
While this is the case, it is equally evident that some of the factors did not have significant impact in countries where uprisings never succeeded, say Libya and Syria, or in countries like Saudi Arabia, where revolts have never gained momentum because of the leadership. Besides explaining how the Middle East and North Africa toppled their authoritative governments, it is important to understand the reasons behind such a course of action.
Internal Factors
It is worth noting that revolutions occur because of various reasons. In other words, it is rare to find a government being overthrown as a result of a single reason. A wide- range of factors have contributed to the Arab Spring, including unemployment, high food prices, and violation of human rights among others.
For the case of Egypt, the income gap, which had persisted during the reign of Mubarak, is considered to have contributed to the uprisings (Cordesman 2). Due to this, more than half of the population lived on $2 a day, making it hard for them to meet their essential needs.
During this time, the country had an average per-capita income of 6,200 USD. While this was the case, Egypt was also ranked as one of the countries with increasing food prices. That made it hard for citizens to meet their basic needs, causing them to protest and compel the government to intervene and provide a lasting solution to the problem.
Another cause of the Arab Spring was unemployment. Most the Arab countries have high levels of unemployment, which have been precipitated by other factors. As a result, unemployment has remained a major cause of insecurity and unstable political systems in the region.
According to a report released in 2011, over twenty four percent of trained citizens of these countries cannot get employment. This percentage of unemployed people is seen to be too high yet most of these countries have been unable to initiate programs aimed at creating more jobs because of the impact of global financial crises (Muravchik 28).
As mentioned before, the Tunisian who lit himself and sparked protests around the country did so because he was unemployed graduate selling vegetables, before meeting the unfair treatment from the police. Most rioters believed that their governments had failed in creating new jobs, and were therefore unfit to take charge of their countries.
Government
In understanding the causes of the Arab Spring, it is essential to note that these governments have major elements, which are common and play a major role in determining the impact of the protests.
For example, the countries have had a long history of dictatorship perpetrated by presidents, kings, and prime ministers. They have therefore followed almost an identical pattern in exercising their authorities. This has been achieved through governments’ dominance in all departments so that there is one point from where the different sections are manipulated from (Muravchik 30).
As a result, most of the dictators have assumed positions, which allow them to become the primary crafters of decisions, which they perceive to be fit in the running of the country. Additionally, the decisions are made in a manner that eliminates the possibility of being harmed or opposed by the public. Whilst this is the case, it is sometimes not easy because one has to attend to the needs of all the social classes, including the wealthy, elites, and the lower class.
In order to capture the attention and support of a given group, it is important to address its needs through the improvement of healthcare, streamlining the education sector and expansion of industries for the purpose of creating jobs. This method of leadership has been adopted by various leaders in the Arab World without knowing that it equally makes a leader more vulnerable (Cordesman 3).
During an economic crisis, like it has been witnessed before, elites usually demand more than what can be offered while the educated exert more pressure, demanding more job opportunities and a fair voice from the government in addressing their needs. This combination makes the leader to lose his legitimacy and may trigger efforts to topple the government of the day.
Poor governance equally led to the Arab Spring, as citizens of the affected countries believed that their respective governments had failed to promote commendable leadership approaches. For example, corruption and absence of political freedom are common characteristics of Arab World countries.
Egypt had been under political captivity for a very long time, with unsuccessful efforts to restore political freedom. After the Six Day War of 1967, several changes were implemented in Egypt, which led to limited freedom. Following the changes, police were given more powers and autonomy in restoring order in the country. Additionally, several constitutional rights were terminated, with the government arguing that the move was necessary in order to overcome insecurity threats in the country.
Besides these inhumane moves, Egypt also detained its citizens who seemed to speak for the voiceless and closed media organizations, which criticized the government or appeared to enlighten its citizens (Cordesman 4). The military courts were also common in Egypt before the revolt, even though it has been tied to other factors like the global war against terrorism, as a way of promoting human rights.
As mentioned before, advancement in technology has played a major role in the Arab Spring, especially in promoting the flow of information through the internet. Middle East and North Africa countries had to confront the challenge of social media as most young people connected through the internet.
Other groups and organizations, which were against the regimes found social media, to be a channel through which they could expose the failures of the governments. Messages targeting governments and calling upon all citizens to join the revolt were all over on the internet, forcing some countries to disable Twitter and Facebook in their countries (Muravchik 30). It should however be clear that this technology did not trigger violence in these countries; it facilitated communication during the uprisings.
While internal factors played a major role in triggering the uprisings, it has equally been argued that international factors influenced the success of these revolts. Their geography also mattered and international relations with other players like the United States and European countries (Amin et al. 150). For instance, Egypt is the largest Arab state and made history to be the first country to seal a peace deal with Israel.
Additionally, Mubarak maintained a good relationship with the United States and had influence on matters relating to Palestine. These countries maintained good ties as Egypt remained Israel’s major supplier of petroleum products. Nevertheless, the end of Mubarak’s reign was the beginning of a turbulent relationship between Egypt and Israel as some Egyptians suggested the termination of the peace agreement.
Impact of the Arab Spring
The revolts in the Middle East and North Africa countries have had significant impact within the region and across the globe because of the interconnectivity of global economies. Importantly, a wide-range of effects, have been witnessed as a result of the diverse nature of the region. For instance, the revolts, which were witnessed in Tunisia and Egypt, were not easily replicated in other countries like Syria, Libya, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, and Bahrain (Amin et al. 150).
International military played a major role in supporting Libyan rebels, who were fighting government troops as Saudi military reinforcement helped Bahrain to overcome the protests in the country. Nevertheless, oil-rich Gulf States are likely to resist the political change using any means in order for them to remain in power, especially after successful revolts in the region.
Even though it was initially thought that the Arab Spring would result into realignment of power structures, this has not been the case because of several reasons. For instance, most players remained convinced that their oil supply was secure, thus eliminating the need to develop alliances with other nations (Cordesman 4). In addition, the United States and the European States believed that there were more options on how to connect with these governments especially after the fall of the dictators.
On the other hand, it has been argued that the Arab Spring may lead to the re-emergence of Egypt as the super power of the Arab World. Events, which were witnessed during the revolution, were quite significant as it was projected that the revolution would spread to other countries in the region. The consolidation of the military and plans to prosecute Mubarak were clear indicators of unending power of protest.
Moreover, the intervention by Western countries may have had a significant impact in the region in helping to resolve the conflicts through military and diplomatic approaches. Western countries were not quick to intervene during the uprisings in North Africa, in order to give the African Union the priority of participation as a way of safeguarding their credibility. As a result, their voices were heard through African Union, as they supported rebels in bringing down dictatorial governments in the region (Cordesman 4).
It is worth noting that the replacement of dictators in the Arab World will promote economic stability. For example, the emerging political environments will be paramount in determining the price of oil around the world (Amin et al. 120). There was an increase in the price of oil from $89 to $125 due to the expected drop in the production since the uprisings were expected to continue across the region.
This was mainly because the Arab World’s oil reserves add up to 60% and its production is approximated to be 35%. It has therefore been argued that one of the global effects of the Arab Spring is the increase in oil prices.
The revolutions are also likely to promote nationalistic approaches towards economic development. For instance, most of the countries are occupied with the urge of promoting democracy and not necessarily focusing on the production of oil.
Since oil production is not given preference, there is a likelihood of high oil prices. This might cause a slowdown in the recovery of the world’s economy (Anderson 7). A shift towards social equality is likely to dominate, since it is the main reason that triggered the revolts in several countries. It can therefore be seen that the Arab Spring continues to exert its effects upon the entire world, since oil is the main economic driver globally.
These countries have also suffered economically as a result of destroyed infrastructure during the conflicts. Roads and railway systems were destroyed, thus paralyzing economic development. The uprisings have also led to deaths of people and displacement of others, resulting into humanitarian crises. For example, Turkey continues to strain by hosting thousands of Syrians who have fled from their home country.
Conclusion
From this analysis, it is clear that the Arab Spring was caused by several factors, which were highly intertwined. Nevertheless, the need to end dictatorial regimes was a leading factor, as citizens of these nations became impatient with oppressive leadership. Other internal factors like corruption and unemployment further promoted rioters to remain determined during the uprisings. Importantly, the Arab Spring has been widely blamed for high fuel prices emanating from low production.
Works Cited
Amin et al. After the Spring: Economic Transitions in the Arab World. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2012. Print.
Anderson, Lisa. “Demystifying the Arab Spring.” Foreign Affairs 90.3 (2011): 2-7. Print.
Cordesman, Anthony: Rethinking the Arab Spring. Center for Strategic and National Studies, 2011. Web.
Muravchik, Joshua. “Neoconservatives and the Arab Spring.” Commentary 132.2 (2011): 28-35. Print.
A wave of demonstrations and protests, which is known as the Arab Spring affected a great number of countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, or Syria. They led to the downfall of several autocratic regimes. To some degree, this social upheaval affected Morocco. However, the political regime of this state was able to withstand this turmoil. The article written by Thierry Desrues is aimed at examining the peculiarities of the protest movement in Morocco.
However, this work can also show why the Arab Spring did not undermine the monarchy in Morocco. In this case, one should focus on the attempts of the government to reach some compromise with protesters and the absence of a single alternative to the authoritarian regime. Additionally, it is important to remember that the oppression of protesters diminished the influence of demonstrations.
Finally, this movement was not supported by every member of the community. So, Thierry Desrues’ article can be important for understanding the nature of the political movement in Morocco. This source is also helpful for describing the long-term implications of the Arab Spring for this country. These are main questions that should be discussed more closely.
First of all, the author points out that the political system in Morocco can be described as a hybrid regime. On the one hand, in this country King Mohammed VI can be described as the main decision-maker whose authority cannot be limited or questioned. So, one can say that Morocco has an autocratic government. Such a situation could be observed in other African countries. However, at the same time, this system enables some participation of individuals in the public life of the country.
For instance, in 2005, the policy of reducing poverty was implemented by associative networks (Desrues 413). These local organizations had the authority to decide in which way the financial resources could be used. To a great extent, this policy was helpful for creating an illusion that people could take part in the political life of a country.
So, this is one of the issues that Thierry Desrues wants to explore in this text. It seems that this discussion can throw light on the complexities of the social and political life in this country. This policy helped the government to reduce the tensions within the society.
Furthermore, it is important to mention that the protest movement in this country was represented by very different groups. In particular, one can speak about leftist parties such as Unified Socialist Party, the supporters of student unionism, human rights organizations, Islamists, and many others (Desrues 415). In other words, they did not have a common political agenda. Many of them did not try to overthrow the political regime of the country.
Some of them only wanted to promote the rights of Amazigh people, while others supported the idea of gender equality (Desrues 418). Yet, they were not necessarily opposed to the form of government which emerged in this country. This is one of the reasons why they did not provide a valid alternative to the monarchical rule of King Mohammed VI. Overall, Thierry Desrues is able to identify the reasons why the regime could withstand this upheaval. Such an explanation seems to be quite feasible.
Additionally, the author of this article points out that Mohammed VI was able to respond to the political unrest in this country. Much attention should be paid to the constitutional reform which was carried out right after the protests (Desrues 418). For instance, this reform increased the authority of the parliament in this country. Moreover, these changes in the legislation were supposed to address the concerns of many people. One should pay attention to such problems as the discrimination against Amazigh people or gender inequality (Desrues 418).
It should be mentioned that in Morocco, monarchical rule still exercises strong influence over the legislative and executive power. However, this constitutional reform was perceived as the intention of the state to comply with the demands of the society. To a great extent, Thierry Desrues shows that the representatives of the political regime proved to be more flexible than other authoritarian leaders. This flexibility helped the government to avoid a possible downfall. This is one of the main arguments that can be put forward.
Apart from that, it is important to mention that the opposition to the monarchical rule was partly suppressed through intimidation, home visits, and arrests of people (Desrues 420). This strategy of the government prevented many people from joining demonstrations and protests. Nevertheless, it is important to remember the government did not try to escalate violence against the protestors. Apart from that, there were people who objected to the radical political transformation of Morocco.
They had confrontations with the protesters (Desrues 420). This is another issue that can be singled out. In this article, the author shows various members of the Moroccan society had different views on the development of the government. They did not support the idea of a radical change in the political regime. This detail is important for explaining the peculiarities of the Arab Spring in the country.
Very often, researchers speak about the so-called “Moroccan exception”, when they speak about the impact of political upheavals on this country (Desrues 422). As a rule, this term implies that the Arab Spring did not manifest itself very strongly in Morocco. However, one should not suppose that no goals were achieved. In particular, political activists were able to legitimize social and political change within the country.
This transformation is important for empowering the citizens of Morocco. Furthermore, this outcome can be regarded as a form of success because the Moroccan society was able to avoid such pitfalls as continuous violence or even military conflicts. It is quite possible that the gradual evolution of this society can contribute to the improvements in the lives of people. This is one of the details that should be distinguished.
On the whole, the examples which Thierry Desrues provides can explain why the Arab Spring did not result in the overthrow of the monarchical rule in Morocco.
One should consider such factors as the hybrid nature of the political regime in this country; 2) the willingness of the government to make concessions to the public; 3) the absence of a single political agenda; and 4) the actions of the police force and the opposition to protestors. These are the main issues that can be identified. It is possible to say that Thierry Desrues’ article can be helpful for the examination of the political and social transformation in Morocco. This is why it should not be overlooked by the readers.
Works Cited
Desrues, Thierry. “Mobilizations in a hybrid regime: The 20th February Movement and the Moroccan regime.” Current Sociology 61.4 (2013): 409-423. Print.
The political decision of citizens in any country is usually influenced by the situation within the country and by the events at the international political arena. From this point, it is important to examine the dependence between the success and failure of the definite political events and people’s further decisions to participate in the similar events or support political projects.
The research question on which the project is based depends on the necessity to examine the possible connection and dependence between the people’s vision of the Arabian Spring’s successfulness and their willingness to participate in protests. To study the research question, it is important to focus on the associated hypotheses.
According to the first hypothesis, if citizens perceive the Arabian Spring as unsuccessful, they are disappointed with its results and they are not ready to participate in protests because of the focus on the failure and disappointment. Furthermore, those citizens who discuss the Arabian Spring as successful are inclined to participate in protests and support them because of the focus on the strengths.
To examine the research question and support the hypotheses, it is necessary to work out effective survey questions for questionnaires which are developed to study the citizens’ vision of the problem and their perceptions as well as the particular features of demographics which are important to present the description of the sample.
That is why, survey questions are developed to state the gender and age characteristics of participants along with their education, occupational and socioeconomic status which can influence the citizens’ perception of the political events and their activity in relation to participation in the political life of the country.
From this perspective, it is important to learn persons’ age, gender, religion, education, occupational and socioeconomic status along with political preferences and sharing the ideas of the definite parties which can affect the discussion of the political situation and perception of the Arabian Spring with the further participation in protests.
The successfulness of the sampling procedures depends on the quality of the questions and on activity of participants while answering the questions and choosing the concrete answers instead of preferring not to answer a question. The frequency of choosing the concrete answers to questions is higher than of preferring not to answer a question, and this fact allows speaking about the credibility and usefulness of the answers received.
From this point, the sampling procedures can be discussed as successful. Paying attention to the specific features of the questions proposed for the survey, it is necessary to note that samples can be discussed as rather similar in relation to demographics. Thus, there are a lot of similarities regarding the age, gender, religion, and education.
Similarities in political preferences can be influenced by the demographics criteria because the majority of the participants belong to the same social sector and share similar social and political interests. The descriptive statistics can be successfully used to summarize a sample and provide the definite results in the form of numbers without presenting conclusions.
To understand the role of the descriptive statistics in the project, it is necessary to concentrate on the variables discussed and on the results of the survey. The descriptive statistics used in the research is helpful to discuss the willingness of people to participate in protests as the dependent variable with references to the mode as the measure of the central tendency.
Thus, it is possible to focus on the general willingness of citizens to support the protests associated with the general perception of the Arabian Spring. In this case, the medium is more appropriate to discuss the independent variable studied in the project. The average people’s perceptions of the Arabian Spring influenced by their demographic characteristics affect their further decisions in relation to participating in protests.
According to the descriptive statistics results, the participants interested in the project are predominantly male, the average age is 18-28 years, these persons are mainly students studying in colleges who are characterized by a rather low socioeconomic status and share the democratic ideas, and this tendency is observed even with references to the first fifteen respondents answering the survey questions.
Table 1. Demographics Results
Respon dent ID
Party ID
Geogra phic region
Reli gion
Age
Edu cation
Gen der
Govern ment: Bigger, smaller, or stay the same?
Federal govern ment: limit or expand?
Occupatio nal status
Socio economic status
Voted for in last election?
1
4
2
1
2
4
2
2
1
1
3
6
2
3
2
1
3
5
2
2
2
1
4
1
3
1
2
1
1
4
1
2
2
6
1
2
4
3
2
1
1
3
2
2
2
6
1
6
5
3
2
1
1
3
2
3
2
6
1
1
6
1
2
1
1
3
2
2
2
6
4
2
7
1
3
5
1
4
2
1
2
6
0
2
8
1
1
1
1
3
2
3
2
6
1
2
9
2
2
1
3
3
2
3
2
5
4
6
10
3
2
5
1
3
1
2
2
3
1
1
11
3
1
5
1
3
1
1
1
6
1
1
12
1
2
1
3
4
2
2
2
1
6
2
13
2
1
1
1
2
1
2
2
3
4
2
14
1
2
1
3
3
1
2
2
5
6
2
15
2
3
3
1
3
1
3
2
1
1
1
16
1
2
1
3
2
2
2
2
5
5
2
17
1
3
1
1
3
1
2
2
6
2
2
18
4
1
1
3
5
1
3
1
1
4
1
19
1
2
1
2
3
1
2
2
5
1
2
20
3
1
1
1
4
1
2
2
1
3
1
21
1
2
1
1
2
1
2
2
1
1
6
22
2
2
1
1
4
1
2
2
6
6
6
23
3
2
3
1
2
1
3
1
6
4
1
24
2
2
5
1
2
1
2
2
6
3
5
25
3
2
3
4
5
2
3
1
3
2
1
26
3
2
3
1
3
1
3
1
6
5
1
27
1
2
3
1
4
2
2
2
6
6
2
28
3
2
5
1
3
2
3
2
6
3
1
29
3
2
3
1
4
2
3
2
6
1
1
30
3
3
1
1
4
1
2
2
6
4
6
31
3
3
1
1
3
1
2
2
5
1
5
32
3
3
3
4
4
1
3
2
1
5
1
33
3
3
3
4
4
1
3
2
1
5
1
34
3
3
2
1
3
2
3
2
6
3
1
35
1
1
2
1
3
1
2
2
6
2
2
36
2
3
5
2
5
1
3
2
3
3
1
37
2
1
5
1
3
2
3
2
6
4
4
38
3
3
4
2
4
2
3
1
4
3
1
39
4
3
1
1
3
1
1
2
5
1
1
40
1
2
1
3
4
1
3
2
1
3
2
41
2
3
5
1
5
2
3
2
6
1
6
42
3
2
2
2
5
1
1
1
5
4
1
43
2
4
1
1
3
3
3
2
2
1
6
44
4
3
4
4
3
1
3
2
5
1
6
45
2
3
2
1
3
2
2
2
5
2
5
46
3
3
4
1
4
1
1
1
6
1
6
47
1
3
1
1
3
2
1
1
4
1
2
48
3
2
2
2
4
1
1
1
4
1
1
49
3
3
1
1
3
2
3
2
6
2
2
50
3
3
1
1
3
1
3
1
5
2
1
51
3
2
2
2
5
1
3
2
5
3
1
52
4
3
1
1
3
1
2
1
7
1
2
Graph 1. Demographics Results (15)
Summarizing the sample, it is important to pay attention to the fact that the identified demographic characteristics influence the participants’ choice of the decision in relation to protesting significantly. Thus, the variability of citizens’ perceptions in relation to the Arabian Spring should be discussed in the context of the sample demographics.
It is appropriate to test the hypothesis about the dependence of citizens’ participation in protests on the perception of the Arabian Spring with references to the Chi-Square test. It is necessary to compare the expected willingness of citizens to participate in protests and observed one as well as the role of discussing the Arabian Spring as successful or unsuccessful.
The Chi-Square test results support the hypothesis that the vision of the Arabian Spring’s successfulness can influence the citizens’ further participation in protests. Using the test statistic (Χ²=∑(O-E)²/E), it is possible to calculate the researched dependence and focus on the difference between the observed and expected willingness of people to support protests. The low measures in relation to the differences allow speaking about the relevance of the discussed hypothesis.
Nevertheless, the used Chi-Square test has both the strengths and weaknesses. Being an effective hypothesis test based on the statistical data, the Chi-Square test usually refers to the normal distribution. Thus, the Chi-Square test is helpful to observe the studied dependence and examine the possible difference which can exist between various groups of participants presented in the sample.
However, the Chi-Square test is more oriented to the practical and numerical results without providing the theoretical information. Moreover, to guarantee the accurate results, it is necessary to concentrate on the possible observed and expected frequencies which are stated in the studied table. In spite of the possible weaknesses and errors while calculating the results according to the Chi-Square test, this measure of association is effective to analyze the findings in order to conclude about the effectiveness and appropriateness of the proposed hypothesis.
The Chi-Square test is useful for measuring the dependence between the people’s willingness to participate in protests and their perception of the Arabian Spring’s successfulness as well as for connecting the demographic statistics with the observed findings. The research question of the project is developed to examine the dependence between citizens’ perceptions of the successfulness of definite political events such as the Arabian Spring and people’s willingness to participate in further protests with references to their perceptions and visions of the results.
It is possible to state that the dependence and correlation was found with the help of the project preformed, and the main hypothesis about the existing dependence and connection was supported. However, political events are complex in their nature, and a lot of aspects can influence the citizens’ political and social behaviour. Thus, the focus only on the visions of successfulness of the political situation and its results for the public can be discussed as limiting the examination of the other aspects of the problem.
To avoid limitations and present the complex picture of the issue from the larger perspective, it is important to refer to the demographics results and citizens’ political preferences as also influencing the further participation in protests. The development of the project allowed to observe the connection between the citizens’ perceptions of the political events and situations and their further actions associated with the social or political life.
Thus, it was found that the vision of certain political events as successful can stimulate citizens’ further participation in the similar events because of orienting to the success. The failure in the development of the political situation can lead to citizens’ lack of interest in relation to the definite way of resolving this or that problem. From this point, those persons who discuss the Arabian Spring as successful are inclined to support the method of protests to resolve the further political issues because of concentrating on the positive results.
However, the question still needs to explain the fact that the results of the Arabian Spring can be considered as both negative and positive ones by different people with references to their socioeconomic status.
First started in Tunisia, the Arab spring is better known for the protests triggered by the public outcry of Mohamed Bouzazi. Tunisia is one of the countries located in the Middle Eastern part of the continent with a predominantly Muslim population, making its citizens adopt the same culture in terms of political, economic, and social ideologies. Most of the countries in the region are accustomed to an extensive amount of violence. This stems from the economic situation, which is not ideal for the growth and sustainability of its population as well as the economy. Like most Arab countries, Tunisia is blessed with large deposits of minerals making the country a key source for investments. The above information would make the country an ideal place to live due to the potential it has. This is, however, not the case of this state owing to the fact that the population is exposed to all forms of oppression and low standards of living.
The focus of this paper is to provide an analysis of the Arab spring. The paper looks at the issues faced by the citizens in this area. One of the major issues encountered presently is the immense social injustice that the population is accustomed to. The paper studies the actions of Mohamed Bouzazi, whose public outcry changed the dynamics of not only the Arab spring but the entire Middle East.
One of the factors responsible for these circumstances is the management of the country’s affairs. Most of the authorities are given to the leaders who control all forms of the economy’s functions. This gives rise to the population dependent on the government for all the aspects of their livelihood. The Arab spring is home to more than 2 million individuals who are highly reliant on authorities for their basic needs. Persons in this area have lived under this situation for a long time making their circumstances ‘normal’. The continued mistreatment of the population has, however, taken a toll on the emotional, mental, and physical state of the population. One of the cases that expose the real situation is the selfless action of Bouzazi, whose selfless actions have displayed the hopelessness of the entire nation.
One of the issues that have given rise to the protests is the lack of basic needs, such as food. Tunisia is predominantly semi-arid making the country subject to the importation of a large percentage of its food. The government is responsible for overseeing the proper management of the welfare of the citizens in the country. A large portion of the economy’s GDP should be geared towards securing food for the population. Most of the funds are, however, transferred to the military and other government related matters. This leaves the country in need of basic factors, such as food, education, housing and internal security.
The level of poverty in the Arabic countries is on the rise due to the lack of proper investments. Politicians are more concerned with the generation of their personal wealth as opposed to that of their economy. They are forced to fend for themselves using the most absurd methods. Bouzazi’s self-immolation caused a national outcry that has triggered a series of revolutions across the region. It is disappointing to learn that a man could go to the extreme of setting his whole body on fire to get the attention of the authorities. One of the issues that he was protesting against was the complete ignorance of the authorities of their current situation. People are not allowed to conduct their business in peace due to the interference of the police. Most of the businessmen are forced to bribe their way out of any situation, so as to earn a basic income for the day.
As stated earlier, the government is responsible for the wellbeing of the entire nation. This is because they are entrusted with this authority by the nation which involves ensuring that all the lives of its citizens are protected. The political situation in the country begs to differ as most of the politicians get access to the government through corrupt methods. One of the factors that encourage corruption in the country is the election of officials through nepotism. Most of the predecessors are chosen from an early stage, so as to keep the leadership within a few influential families. This eliminates potential politicians who are capable of performing the same duties.
In conclusion, it is essential to note that Bouzazi’s actions were not in vain. Through the use of technology, people all over the world were able to see the oppression experienced during the Arab spring. The main implication of Bouzazi’s protests enhanced the revolution from neighboring countries. This shows that countries in the region are facing the same political, social and economic issues in the hands of their political leaders. The protests in Egypt, Yemen, Libya, Morocco and Bahrain exposed the governments as corrupt institutions. Some of the leaders, like in the case of Egypt, were ousted giving rise to a new form of democracy. Due to the Arab spring, people continue to rally and fight for their rights. Though some improvements have been made, the country still has a long way to go before it receives the proper treatment that it desperately craves for.