scholarly journals Bin Ali Authoritarianism and International Factors in Tunisia (1987-2008)

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 85-111
Author(s):  
Hatice Rümeysa Dursun
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Transformation Process ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
The West ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Political Freedoms ◽  
Democratic Stability ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
New Literature ◽  
Shed Light

Despite being shaken by the Arab Spring, authoritarian structures still exist in the regions of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). Th is situation highlights the importance of studying the continuity of authoritarian structures more comprehensively. In addition to approaches that reduce authoritarianism to intra-state factors, literature has developed over the last decade emphasizing the importance of international factors. This literature in particular emphasizes the politics, economics, and diplomacy established by the West and that ties are effective in the continuity of authoritarianism in non-Western countries. This study attempts to explain Ben Ali’s period and the continuity of authoritarianism in Tunisia in the context of this developing new literature. Although Tunisia underwent a relatively positive transformation process after the Arab Spring, Ben Ali’s authoritarian rule was supported by the West as a model of an economic miracle and democratic stability; this administration managed to survive for 23 years. The study’s main argument can be expressed as follows: While the economic liberalization process imposed on Tunis by Western actors caused an increase in socio-economic inequalities, the instrumentalization of democracy by the West again served to suppress civil and political freedoms. Instead of focusing on the obstacles and opportunities in front of the transition to democracy in the post-Arab Spring period, examining theinternational factors influencing the continuity of authoritarianism in the Ben Ali period will shed light on how authoritarian structures still survive in MENA.

15. The Arab Spring: The ‘People’ in International Relations

2019 ◽  
pp. 339-367
Author(s):  
Larbi Sadiki
Keyword(s):  
New Media ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
External Interference ◽  
Arab Uprisings ◽  
The People ◽  
Media And Technology ◽  
The Arab Spring

This chapter looks at the Arab uprisings and their outcomes, approaching them from the perspective of the peoples of the region. The Arab uprisings are conceived of as popular uprisings against aged and mostly despotic governments, which have long silenced popular dissent. Ultimately, the Arab uprisings demonstrate the weakness of traditional international relations, with its focus on states and power, by showing how much the people matter. Even if the Arab uprisings have not yet delivered on popular expectations, and the Arab world continues to be subject to external interference and persistent authoritarian rule, they are part of a process of global protest and change, facilitated by new media and technology, which challenges the dominant international relations theories.

scholarly journals Is Indonesia a Model for the Arab Spring? Islam, Democracy, and Diplomacy

2013 ◽  
Vol 47 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
James B. Hoesterey
Keyword(s):  
Democratic Transition ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Asian Financial Crisis ◽  
Hillary Clinton ◽  
Economic Stability ◽  
Ideal Model ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
East Indies ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Ideal

As protestors filled Tahrir Square in Cairo in January 2011, Western diplomats, academics, and political pundits were searching for the best political analogy for the promise—and problems—of the Arab Uprising. Whereas neoconservative skeptics fretted that Egypt and Tunisia might go the way of post-revolutionary Iran, Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright praised Indonesia’s democratization as the ideal model for the Arab Spring. During her 2009 visit to Indonesia, Clinton proclaimed: “If you want to know whether Islam, democracy, modernity, and women’s rights can coexist, go to Indonesia.” Certainly Indonesia of May 1998 is not Egypt of January 2011, yet some comparisons are instructive. Still reeling from the Asian financial crisis of 1997, middle class Indonesians were fed up with corruption, cronyism, and a military that operated with impunity. On 21 May 1998 Soeharto resigned after three decades of authoritarian rule. Despite fits of starts and stops, the democratic transition has brought political and economic stability. Whereas academics and pundits have debated the merits of the Indonesia model for democratic transition, in this article I consider how the notion of Indonesia as a model for the Arab Spring has reconfigured transnational Muslim networks and recalibrated claims to authority and authenticity within the global umma.An increasing body of scholarship devoted to global Muslim networks offers important insights into the longue durée of merchant traders and itinerant preachers connecting the Middle East with Southeast Asia. In his critique of Benedict Anderson’s famous explanation of “imagined communities” as the result of print capitalism within national borders, historian Michael Laffan argued that Indonesian nationalism had important roots in global Muslim networks connecting the Dutch East Indies with Cairo’s famous al-Azhar University.

scholarly journals Why Islam (Properly Understood) Is the Solution

2013 ◽  
Vol 30 (4) ◽  
pp. 137-145
Author(s):  
Nader Hashemi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Middle East ◽  
North Africa ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Muslim Brotherhood ◽  
Transition To Democracy ◽  
Islamic World ◽  
Late Twentieth ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
Late Twentieth Century

This paper is a provocative play on the famous Muslim Brotherhood slogan al-Islām hūwa al-ḥāl (Islam is the solution). While critics of the Muslim Brothers rightly criticized them for the simplicity of their worldview in thinking that religion was a panacea for all of the problems confronting Muslim societies during the late twentieth century, an argument can be made that religion does profoundly matter in the context of the struggle for democracy in the Arab-Islamic world. In the aftermath of the Arab Spring, democratic transitions in North Africa and the Middle East will be dependent on democratically negotiating the question of religion’s role in politics. Here I provide some reflections on this topic with a focus on Tunisia’s transition to democracy.  

scholarly journals Political elites of the Arab world and their influence

2020 ◽  
Vol 70 (2) ◽  
pp. 107-115
Author(s):  
A. Sh. Abhari ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Status Quo ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Factors Influencing ◽  
Foreign Intervention ◽  
The Status ◽  
The Arab Spring ◽  
The Military ◽  
Shed Light

The debate between political scientists about the "Arab Spring" revolutions is still escalating. Especially regarding the forces operating at the scene. Attempts by the military elite to retain power and try to maintain the status quo at any cost, leaving the doors wide open for foreign intervention The foreign interventions of countries that are trying to use the wave of the Arab spring to achieve their goals have especially complicated the situation in the Arab world. In this article I will try to shed light on some factors influencing the results of the “Arab Spring” revolutions.

Invoking the Name

2019 ◽  
pp. 141-152
Author(s):  
Sophia Moskalenko ◽  
Clark McCauley
Keyword(s):  
Arab Spring ◽  
Green Revolution ◽  
The Other ◽  
The West ◽  
Psychological Reactions ◽  
Mass Politics ◽  
The Arab Spring

The Arab Spring brought to the front pages of Western newspapers stories of people who were hailed as martyrs by Muslims and accepted as such by the West. Two such cases are detailed in this chapter, one of a Tunisian self-immolator who started the Arab Spring; the other of a victim of the Iranian regime’s crackdown on the Green Revolution. The authors use these cases to build on the previous chapter in further exploration of the purposes and pitfalls of misusing the term “martyr.” These cases illuminate the power a word can have over mass politics and individual psychological reactions.

The Arab Spring: A View from Israel

2012 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 42-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haim Bresheeth
Keyword(s):  
Middle East ◽  
Arab Spring ◽  
Arab World ◽  
Historical Context ◽  
The West ◽  
Protest Movement ◽  
History Of ◽  
The One ◽  
The Arab Spring

The Arab Spring is one of the most complex and surprising political developments of the new century, especially after a decade of anti-Muslim and anti-Arab western propaganda. While is too early to properly evaluate the process and its various national apparitions, it is important to see it in a historical context. This article places the Arab Spring firmly within the history of pan Arabism, and the threat it posed to the west and Israel in its earlier, Nasserist phase. The work of Amin, Marfleet and others, is used to frame the current developments, and present the limited view offered from an Israeli perspective, where any democratisation of the Arab world is seen as a threat. This is so despite the obvious influence the Arab Spring had on protest in Israel in Summer 1011, a protest which has now seemingly spent itself; it is fascinating to note that the only protest movement in the Middle East not involving violent clashes with the regime it criticised, is also the one which has not achieved any of its aims.

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