The Arab Spring is an extremely prominent issue today. This refers to the series of protests and civil wars that have been occurring in the Arab World due to discontent with government, human rights violations, poverty, and other factors. Countries where this is an issue include Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Sudan. One of the countries hit hardest by the revolution was Egypt.
What is often called “the spark that started it all,” occurred on December 17, 2011 in Tunisia. A street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire to protest the corruption of the government. (Arab Spring, 2013) The 26 year old Bouazizi sold vegetables on the streets of Tunisia to make a living. His self-immolation was brought on when his cart of vegetables was confiscated by a policewoman. (Abouzeid, 2011) Bouazizi then went to the provincial headquarters to complain to officials about his situation. However, they refused to see him. Angered at the way he was being treated, Bouazizi set himself on fire in protest. (Abouzeid, 2011) He was taken to the hospital and stayed there until his death on January 4, 2011. Bouazizi’s self-immolation caused such an uproar that even Tunisia’s dictator, President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, visited him in the hospital. Bouazizi’s mother, Mannoubia, said, “Mohamed did what he did for the sake of his dignity. He lives on, his name lives on. I am proud of what happened in Tunis, I am proud that he is known throughout the Arab World.” (Abouzeid, 2011) Bouazizi’s self-immolation had such a huge impact on Tunisia that Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on January 14.
Soon after Bouazizi’s self-immolation, a revolution began in Libya. The Libyan Revolution began o...
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Shaub, W. (2010). The Roots of Revolution in Egypt. Arbitrage Magazine. Retrieved from http://www.arbitragemagazine.com/topics/international-affairs/middle-east/the-roots-of-revolution-in-egypt/
Shehata, S. (2011, November 25). Profiles of Egypt's Political Parties. BBC News. Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-15899548
Timeline Revolution in Egypt. (2014). Timelines.latimes.com. Retrieved from http://timelines.latimes.com/egypt/
Tristam, P. (n.d.). Profile: Egypt's Hosni Mubarak. Middle East Issues. Retrieved from http://middleeast.about.com/od/egypt/p/hosni-mubarak-09.htm
Zayan, J. (2011, February 14). Egypt Activists and Army Discuss Reforms. The Sydney Morning Herald. Retrieved December 7, 2013, from http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-world/egypt-activists-and-army-discuss-reforms-20110214-1as8u.html
Party is an inevitable feature of the democracy and it is defined as ‘an autonomous group of citizens having the purpose of making nominations and contesting elections in the hope of gaining control over governmental power through the capture of public offices and the organization of the government’ (Caramani, 2011, p.220). Parties are ubiquitous in modern political systems and they perform a number of functions, they are: coordination, contesting elections, recruitment, and representation (Caramani, 2011). Political parties are the product of the parliamentary and electoral game, and party systems reflect the social oppositions that characterize society when parties first appear (Coxall et al., 2011).
"The Role of Civil Disobedience in Democracy." Civil Liberties Monitoring Project. Web. 01 Oct. 2011. .
Ridel, B, 'The real losers in Egypt's uprising', The Daily Best Online, 13 February 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2011< http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-13/al-qaeda-absent-in-hosni-mubaraks-fall-and-egyptian-revolution/>
“The Danish Egyptian dialogue Institute” article. “Tribes and Elections in Upper Egypt.” Hiwar Magazine. Jan. 2012.
"Political Parties | Scholastic.com." Teaching Resources, Children's Book Recommendations, and Student Activities | Scholastic.com. Web. 18 Aug. 2011. .
"Arab Uprisings: 10 Key Moments." BBC News. BBC, 12 Oct. 2012. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.
Early 2011 uprisings swept across the Middle East and North Africa, and many rebellions are still going on today. The Arab region has seen revolts and conflict since the 1800‘s, but only recently have these revolts been redirected to the problems of Arab society (Ghannam, J. 2011 pg 4-5)The Arab Spring Uprising was first sparked in Tunisia and eventually struck Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and then spread to other countries. Citizens throughout these countries were dissatisfied with the rule of their local governments. Issues like human rights violations, political corruption, economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, dictators...
BACKGROUND: In March of 2011, the unrest in Syria was just beginning, with protests g...
Chenoweth seeks to explain why “nonviolent resistance often succeeds compared to violent resistance, and under what conditions nonviolence succeeds or fails”. In recent years, organized groups conducting civil disobedience have been successful using nonviolent tactics such as, “boycotts, strikes, protests, and organized noncooperation”, in order to challenge the current power they were facing.1 Some successful examples of regimes that have been removed from power in recent years are, “Serbia (2000), Madagascar (2002), Georgia (2003), Ukraine (2004-2005), Lebanon (2005), and Nepal (2006)”.1 More recently in 2011 there were major uprising in both Egypt and Tunisia that were able to remove regimes that had been in power for decades, showing that nonviolence can work even if the regime has been in power for years.1
The tea party has been a hot topic in the United States ever since the movement began in 2008, yet many people do not understand what exactly it is. Contrary to what some people may think, the tea party is not a true political party. It can broadly be defined as a gathering of libertarians, conservatives, and other people who want to change Washington. The common ideals of the tea party movement are cutting government spending, limiting taxes, and stopping excessive federal regulations. The most important thing one needs to know about the movement though, is that there is not a single tea party- the movement consists of hundreds of different autonomous groups, each widely varying in priorities and size.
In those countries that have not experienced government upheaval, a common outcome of the Arab Spring has been sustained civil unrest, political instability, and the extension of political and economic concessions by leaders seeking to appease protesters. Many questions could arise as one contemplated those events. One of these questions would be: Why has the Arab Spring produced different results across the Middle East? This paper is a humble attempt to suggest some answers to this sort of these logical questions.
As the Arab Spring enters its second year, major uprisings and revolts have occurred all over the Middle East, pushing for an end to the corrupt autocratic rule and an expansion of civil liberties and political rights. Most recently, images from Syria have emerged, depicting the government’s use of force to suppress the voice of its people. One might ask, “Is this the beginning of a revolution? Is the country on the path to democracy?” To assess this question and examine the future trends in the region, one must look back on the country’s somewhat tumultuous history, the relationship between the citizens and the state, and the political economy.
The Prague Spring is referred to when the Warsaw Pact allies invaded Czechoslovakia in 1968. Below are the details surrounding the incident.
Egyptian’ are and Arabic speaking nation-state with a diverse culture and heritage as a modern nation-state. Their development, over the centuries, saw conflicting beliefs but, most Egyptians today see themselves, their history, culture, and language as specifically Egyptian. Mr. Kamel states that the, “Egypt’s leading role in Middle Eastern cultural and political affairs, generally dominates Egypt’s relations with other nations. In turn, this either broadens or limits the scope of choices and opportunities available domestically” (Kamel, 1999). Egypt as a state; their politics are organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, where the executive power is divided between the President and the Prime Minister.
Freedom: something taken for granted by citizens all over the first world countries. The struggle for freedom all around the world is a very real one. Recently, the fight for freedom has taken the oppressed by storm. All over the globe, there have been many examples of people fed up with corruption and ready to take control of their lives and the lives of their children. This is evident through the struggles for freedom seen in Syria, Egypt, Tunisia, and most recently Ukraine. It’s 2014 and governments controlled by a central authority or dictator are still prevalent. Countries all over the world have been isolated and stripped of their individual voices. The struggle for freedom coexists with the struggle of finding a voice. A voice is what the Libyan people found in February of 2011 when they started protests against a regime that ruled for forty-two years in isolated dictatorship. Three years later, the very same voice that liberated them is one of the gigantic obstacles they’re facing in establishing a functioning government in the country. This emphatic voice that has been silenced for 42 years by an iron-fisted rule is now louder than ever. The consensus is that they want an operational democracy in place as soon as possible. But three years have passed, and the country is more restless than ever. The country is completely dysfunctional and there is no telling what the people will do next if a stable democratic constitution isn’t in place soon. They’ve just ousted their fourth prime minister in less than three years and casualties are increasing by the day. The current Libyan situation is widely attributed to the 2011 revolution. That being said, understanding how the 2011 revolution happened and why it unfolded the way it...