Social unrest began in Tunisia on December 17, 2010 and quickly spread across the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region, most notably in Egypt, Yemen, Jordan, Bahrain, Syria, Libya and Morocco, forming what is known as the Arab Spring. Many of these demonstrations evolved into revolutions resulting in the overthrow of longstanding authoritarian governments. However, in other countries, social unrest peaked and then dwindled, either as a result of suppression by the government or softened by promises of democratic reform. These instances of social unrest have coincided with the technological and digital revolution, in which the Arab world has increasingly been opened to various forms of new social media. With Internet penetration rates,
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The most obvious of all factors is that every Arab country that experienced a significant degree of popular protest was governed by an authoritarian regime. Many, if not all, of these governments lacked free and fair elections, and various restrictions were imposed on formation of political parties. Therefore, these countries did not have a form in which the government could identify and respond to it’s people’s popular demands. Because of the lack of any of these feedback mechanisms they are frequently incapable of identifying and addressing social unrest in a timely manner which would come back to bite …show more content…
An increasing number of youth were enrolling in higher education. College enrolment tripled in Tunisia, quadrupled in Egypt and increased by ten times in Libya. Unfortunately, the increase in wealth and number of jobs could not keep up with the high-paced growth of the population and thus resulted in a growing rate of unemployment and a large number of unhappy educated young people without jobs and limited opportunity for income. This growing urbanization also resulted in the fast-paced expansion of slums in large city areas. This alongside the deprivation of government services contributed to the disaffection among city dwellers. Rising food prices was a major yet also only a small portion of the inflation that added to the discontent in many
The most obvious of all factors is that every Arab country that experienced a significant degree of popular protest was governed by an authoritarian regime. Many, if not all, of these governments lacked free and fair elections, and various restrictions were imposed on formation of political parties. Therefore, these countries did not have a form in which the government could identify and respond to it’s people’s popular demands. Because of the lack of any of these feedback mechanisms they are frequently incapable of identifying and addressing social unrest in a timely manner which would come back to bite …show more content…
An increasing number of youth were enrolling in higher education. College enrolment tripled in Tunisia, quadrupled in Egypt and increased by ten times in Libya. Unfortunately, the increase in wealth and number of jobs could not keep up with the high-paced growth of the population and thus resulted in a growing rate of unemployment and a large number of unhappy educated young people without jobs and limited opportunity for income. This growing urbanization also resulted in the fast-paced expansion of slums in large city areas. This alongside the deprivation of government services contributed to the disaffection among city dwellers. Rising food prices was a major yet also only a small portion of the inflation that added to the discontent in many