Rethinking the Arab Spring
The Arab uprisings represent a revolutionary wave of demonstrations and protests that
swept the Arab world. The Arab Spring which has been sweeping through North Africa and the
entire Arab world since 2010, has been described as a cataclysmic revolutionary wave that has
seen the overthrow of numerous political regimes in its wake. This has had a great impact on the
political developments and democratic governance in the Arab world and the world in general.
Though the political, environmental, and socio-economic factors and variables that resulted in
and sustained the revolutions in the affected states appear similar in nature, they vary from one
country to the other. The repressive, violent nature of Arab regimes, notably Tunisia and Egypt,
and their suppression of individual liberties against a backdrop of ongoing political corruption,
and the rampant economic inequalities are among the major factors leading to the Arab Spring.
The Tunisian revolutionaries were spurred on to take to the streets by endemic poverty, rising
food prices, and chronic unemployment. Despite its economic growth and macroeconomic
performance in the early 2000s, however, Tunisia is a complex case, with a delicate authoritarian
bargain taking place between the regime and society (Achy 12). For a long time, the regime was
able to provide economic and social gains to large sentiments of the population and secure its
legitimacy and political stability in return. The authoritarian bargain, however, had broken down
due to the growing inability of the economy to create jobs for the educated labor, the
proliferation of poorly paid jobs in the informal sector, and the rising income inequality and
regional disparities (Achy 5). In fact, the European recession in 2009 affected the Tunisian
economy, producing a decrease in exports and a lower expansion in services (Arieff 34). The
Euro-zone crisis continued to exacerbate in 2010 which further declined the tourism revenues
and closed both local and foreign businesses as the international credit crunch continued. Prior to
the revolution, the unemployment crisis in Tunisia has claimed its victims for several years,
mainly among youth and university graduates due to the economic instability (Haouas 2012).
Most Tunisians who took to the streets were young, unemployed, and underemployed graduates
who were disillusioned with the government. Many of them have completed higher education but
were still unable to find work (Achy 5). One of the greatest concerns of the youths was seeking
justice for the entire nation. High unemployment rates, poorly paid jobs, and rising income
inequality were among the economic inequalities that sparked the Arab Springs as young
Tunisians became frustrated with their economic struggles and engaged in the overthrow of the
Ben Ali regime by protesting the economic hardship and youth unemployment.
The Tunisian revolutionaries were also spurred on to take to the streets due to the repressive,
violent nature of the Tunisian regime and their suppression of individual liberties against a
backdrop of ongoing political corruption. Since Ben Ali’s rise to power in 1987, Tunisia’s
counterfeit stability has been ensured at the cost of deep political regression. Over the years, the
country became home to one of the most repressive and authoritarian regimes in the region,
which declined Ben Ali’s political legitimacy until 14 January 2011 (Achy 12). The regime
seems to have systematic political repression through widespread violation of human rights,
corruption at various levels, and a lack of political freedom (Achy 12). One can argue that
Tunisia had a corrupt absolute dictatorship and that the first cause of the fall of the Ben Ali
regime was its corrupt ruling nature. For instance, all potential spaces for expression such as the
media, research centers, and civil society organizations were closed during his era (Achy 12).
Tunisia was a regime that left no space for persons or entities to mediate between the people and
the state. The role of the security apparatus was excellent in securing the Ben Ali regime from
any public disobedience and resistance including from the members of the opposition parties.
There was no freedom of the press (Achy 12). The few political parties that were tolerated would
not have been tolerated if they had gathered more than three percent of the votes (Achy 12). The
regime refused to respect human and civil rights, which would lead to mass grievances and
frustration, such as Tunisian Mohammed el-Bouazizi, a notable Tunisian, who protested his
abuse of rights by self-immolation which directly sparked the Arab Spring. His self-immolation
was in response to the confiscation of his wares and the harassment and humiliation inflicted on
him by a municipal official and her aides (Salime 3). Restriction of the press, lack of space for
vocalizing opinions, especially through the media, and constant surveillance under security
apparatus reflect the suppression of individual liberties against a backdrop of ongoing political
corruption caused by the Tunisian regime, which would lead to grievances among the Tunisian
people and spark the Arab Springs.
The repressive, violent nature of the Egyptian regime and their suppression of
individual liberties against a backdrop of ongoing political corruption would serve as a catalyst
to the Arab revolts in Egypt. The political system in Egypt with centralized administration was
believed to have insisted on paving the route to hereditary rule when the constitution was
amended a few times specifically to suit the November 2011 presidential election which was
seen to favor Mubarak’s son, Gamal Mubarak, thus eliminating any chance of free and fair
competition (Achy 12). It was suspected that the results of the last 2010 Parliamentary election,
which gave an unprecedented majority win to the ruling party; the National Democratic Party
(NDP) was fraudulent. This election fraud which was also happening in the 2005 legislative
election led to the Egyptian expectation that the same agenda will be manifested in the next
election (Achy 12). In addition to election fraud, human rights abused by security forces no
doubt delegitimized the Egyptian regime of political power which brought about a feeling of
frustration, injustice, and humiliation among fellow Egyptians. Like the Tunisian regime,
rudimentary and fundamental individual liberties like freedom of expression, freedom of the
press, and freedom of organization have been drastically confiscated by the Egyptian regime.
The Egyptian regime has completely denied the room for dissent. The Egyptian regime has
dominated and not allowed no individual or group to reflect views opposing those of the
government. The regime desperately took on rough measures, using riot-control tactics, and
shutting down the Internet and all forms of communication to weaken the revolution (Achy 4).
Journalists, human rights activists, trade unionists, and politicians are perpetually harassed by
State authorities, tried based on false accusations, put under constant surveillance, and
blackmailed (Achy 5).
In addition, the continuous implementation of the emergency laws over the course of 30
years had expanded the power of the police. For many years, the opposition’s political activities
were constrained and mistreatments of citizens were widespread (Kamal 3). Egypt’s 1958
Emergency law restricts people’s freedom of assembly, movement, and residence in specific
times and places; arrests suspects who are dangerous to public security; order the surveillance of
letters of any type; supervises censorship; seizes journals, newsletters, publications, editorials,
cartoons, and any form of expression and advertisement before they are published (Kamal 4).
The government exercises these powers routinely and robustly. The Egyptian population
criticizes that very exercise as there are reports of mass arrests, prolonged detentions without
trial, and physical beatings and torture of citizens by the police through the exercise of these
powers. (Achy 5). The implementation of emergency laws, abuse of human rights such as
restrictions on the media and press, refusal to legalize parties and electoral manipulation reflect
the suppression of liberties and ongoing political corruption under the Egyptian regime which
inevitably declined Mubarak’s political legitimacy and increased the people’s anger which
manifested through the Arab Springs.
The Arab Spring was also caused by the rampant economic inequalities in Egypt. Young
people in Egypt and the Middle East have been disproportionately disadvantaged by
neoliberalism, a political approach that favors free-market capitalism, deregulation, and
reduction in government spending, and a demographic youth bulge (Singerman 10). Since the
mid-1980s, the majority of the Arab economies have been exposed to tremendous pressure from
international financial institutions such as the IMF and the World Bank to reform their
economies based on an economic liberalization program known as the “Structural Adjustment
Program (SAP) (Kamal 15). Due to the adoption of the program, government subsidies of basic
essential commodities were canceled, government jobs were substantially reduced, and taxation
on consumption was increased for citizens while local and foreign investors were granted custom
and taxation exemption (Kamal 15). These trends resulted in the economic impoverishment of
most people, as illustrated by the drastic rise in food prices in the Arab region, and
unemployment rates, especially among young people (Kamal 10). In “Youth, Gender, and
Dignity in the Egyptian Uprising” by Diane Singerman, she elucidates how young people were
economically excluded by high unemployment and insecure jobs in the formal sector; they were
politically excluded by authoritarianism and state repression, and they were socially excluded by
being delayed in marriage due to its high cost. Singerman describes how “60 percent of all
workers [are] employed in the informal economy in Egypt (and typically lack minimum wage
protection, health insurance, pensions, maternity benefits, trade union protection” (Singerman
17). She also details how neoliberalism gave rise to “high youth unemployment” especially
female unemployment as government budgets decreased, which fostered “inequality” that came
to characterize the Middle East. Egypt’s economy drastically changed when President Mubarak
pursued an “Open Door Policy” that led to intensive “segmentation and stratification” within
nearly all aspects of Egyptian life. According to Singerman, what led to high government
dissatisfaction was when the “Egyptian government sold off large parts of the public sector, cut
the public sector workforce, and encouraged private sector development” (Singerman 18), which
would lead public sector wages to stagnate in many sectors. High unemployment rates among
youths and cutting of the public sector workforce are among the economic inequalities that led to
financial struggles in paying for education, health insurance, and supporting families at home,
which would lead to various protests and serve as a spark to the Arab revolts in Egypt.
In addition to economic disparity, the Egyptian youth faced political exclusion as the
regime “encouraged free markets without political freedoms, electoral or durable
authoritarianism, crony capitalism, and tight restrictions on political organizing, whether formal
or underground” (Singerman, 20). They would be limited in their abilities to vocalize their
opinions against the corrupt regimes, which would lead to further strife and lead to the Arab
uprisings. Finally, the social exclusion would stir animosity among the youth in Egypt, especially
those given to marriage. Various Egyptian youths faced frustration as they faced a process called
“waithood” as they remained in a liminal position between childhood, adolescence, and
adulthood, which is socially equated with marriage. Adolescence can no longer fall between the
ages of ten and nineteen, but for many, it can extend into a young man’s thirties” (Singerman, 9).
Delayed marriage, which many would argue is a positive trend, particularly for women, is
problematic in other ways since sexuality and intimacy are linked socially and legally to
marriage, both within Christian and Islamic traditions. Stringent customs like these would lead to
social grievances and protests and foster the Arab revolts in Egypt, as young men and women
risked their lives pursuing regime changes with the aim of preserving dignity.
The 2011 Arab uprisings which swept the entire Arab region took people by surprise; for
it had never been expected that such phenomena would take place. Long-term, embedded
structural factors leading to the Arab Spring comprise corruption, state repression, denial of
political freedoms, the failure of the traditional powers to accommodate and recognize new youth
movements, the domination of economic resources by the few through the alliance of state
authority and the capital of powerful private individuals, and the spread of poverty and
unemployment among massive swathes of the population. One can see that the Arab Spring is
reminiscent of the revolutions of 1848-complicated and messy. In the context of the 1848
revolutions, each had a distinctive impact, spread from one area to another, and each had its own
heroes and its own crisis, like the Arab uprisings. Interestingly, like the 1848 revolutions, the
Arab revolts were the product of multiple changes-economic, technological, and demographic,
and have taken on a distinctly different meaning in each country. In the case of the Arab Spring,
dictators fell relatively quickly and with comparatively little bloodshed when armies ultimately
refused to support them. With the success of protests in Tunisia, a wave of unrest struck Algeria,
Jordan, Egypt, Yemen, Libya, and then spread to other countries. The largest, most organized
demonstrations occurred on appointed “days of rage”. By October 2011, the Arab uprisings
which had begun eleven months earlier in Tunisia had resulted in the dramatic overthrow of three
heads of state. In Egypt, President Hosni Mubarak resigned on February 11, 2011, after 18 days
of massive protests, terminating his 30-year presidency. Moreover, Tunisian President Zine El
Abidine Ben Ali, after 24 years in power, fled to Saudi Arabia following revolutionary protests.
It has been concluded that structural factors such as deteriorating economies, the uneven
distribution of economic resources, the spread of poverty and unemployment, the repressive
violent nature of the Arab regimes served as the catalyst to the Arab uprisings. But now the most
illuminating and challenging question remains: what are the major impacts and direct
consequences of these uprisings? For one, Arab revolutions have inspired other nations around
the world to follow the same motto; a fact much illustrated in the organization of popular protest
the wall-street capitalist economy in the USA as well as the massive demonstrations that swept
many European countries, such as Greece, Ireland, and Spain (Kamal, 3). Another important
impact of the Arab revolutions is the organization of a viable democratic political system. The
first step concerning this is the organization of fair and free elections. The elections organized in
the aftermath of the Arab revolutions in countries such as Tunisia, and Egypt, have paved the
way for a landslide victory of the Islamists. The high degree of coercion used by the former
autocratic regimes against the Islamists—much illustrated in the arrest, detention, torture, and
long imprisonment—in addition to the higher organizational capabilities of this group have
facilitated their domination of these elections. One noteworthy misconception of the Arab
revolutions is that after the Arab regimes crumble, the Islamists would take over and this would
culminate in religious tyranny and unrest. However, the Arab revolutions have proven to
drastically increase social integration within the political system. As a matter of fact, it seems
that the Islamists have been very cautious in the way they orchestrate their policies after they
assumed political power in these countries. For instance, they have called for the institution of a
secular political system where all political groupings will be accommodated rather than the
adoption of the Islamization program which could exclude other groups. The Arab revolutions
drastically altered the trajectory of the Arab world and set the foundation for new structures
antithetical to Arab autocratic ruling that would lead to new forms of stable economic and
political systems.