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Questions On The Arab Spring

Better Essays

Fall term 2014
University of Windsor
Department of Political Science

45-130 Seminar in Comparative Politics
Instructor: Dr. Elena Maltseva

The Arab Spring

Written by
Kevin Bernklau
Student Nr.: 103957678
Email: bernkla@uwindsor.ca

Submitted on: November 26, 2014 Discuss the structural factors which contributed to the onset of the Arab Spring in 2011. Based on what you learned about the origins of revolutions in this class, was this wave of contention inevitable?

The term “Arab Spring” has emerged in academic literature as well as in the general media from about early 2011. It refers to the “awakening” of some Arab nations and the movements to replace authoritarian regimes with democratic ones. The theme of “spring” and “awakening” seems to have been borrowed from the 1989 reform movements in the former Eastern-block nations, such as in the former German Democratic Republic or Hungary. However, this comparison has been criticised by some analysts since both the circumstances which have led to these movements as well as the outcome of these reform efforts seem to differ quite a lot. Yet, the Arab Spring term seems to be still widely used and even found an extension in the creation of the term Arab Winter which refers to events that happened in 2012 in some Arab countries during which these reform movements seemed to have “cooled-off” and particular nations, such as Egypt, attempted to go back to the status-quo of the pre-2011 era.
The term Arab Spring has been

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