Thesis advisor: Kathleen Bailey / The recent wave of unrest across the Middle East has raised crucial questions about the stability of the remaining regimes in the region. Monarchies have appeared to have weathered the Arab Spring well and have emerged relatively intact while republics such as Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, and Syria have experienced revolutions that have completely overturned existing political and economic systems. Jordan has consistently been praised as a beacon of gradual liberalization in a region where so many dictators have ruthlessly clung to power. Upon closer inspection, however, the Jordanian system is not as well adjusted to democracy and economic capitalism as it may seem. The rentier system, most commonly found in resource rich countries, allows authoritarian regimes to co-opt their populations by using economic rent to supply goods and services usually provided by representative governments. Jordan fulfills a unique role as a rentier state because it does not possess natural resources but is instead able to co-opt its citizens as a result of the influx of external rent that the government receives through foreign aid and remittances. Drawing analysis primarily from scholarly articles and making use of media analysis and first person interviews, I examine the current problems facing the Jordanian system and the changes that have taken place as a result of the popular uprisings during the Arab Spring. The larger implications of this research present a roadmap for other entrenched regimes to follow in order to avoid falling into the self reinforcing and destructive system of favors and economic rent. While it may be too late for Jordan to reform its political system without a revolutionary overhaul, other regimes have the potential to work their way out of the rentier system before the network of rentseeking groups in itself becomes a force that not even the regime can stop. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2013. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: College Honors Program. / Discipline: Political Science .

Thesis advisor: ALI BANUAZIZI / How can one think of the possibility of emergence of democracy in non-Western countries? Such an idea had been approached in pessimism for a long time in academia. This is because the conditions deemed indispensable for democratic development (such as high rates of urbanization and literacy) rarely existed in those countries. Thus, the concept “Western democracy” was considered an oxymoron, since, according to earlier scholars of democracy, only Western polities could meet the conditions/prerequisites for the genesis of democracy. Nevertheless, this long-held prophecy was challenged as non-Western countries demonstrated significant progress towards establishing a democratic rule, despite having “so-called” unfavorable conditions (such as religion or poor economic performance) to democratic development. Despite this global resurgence of democratic governance, the countries in the Middle East and North Africa were never able to develop a democratic rule, a situation that has long been explained by pointing at the “exceptional” characteristics (primarily Islam) inherent in the region. Yet, the events that began on December 17, 2010 in Tunisia opened up the possibility for the countries that had been long-ruled by autocrats to embark on a democratic transition. The uprisings that eventually unseated longtime authoritarian rulers (only occurred in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, and Libya) enabled divergent socio-political forces to become involved in transitional processes in the aftermath of regime breakdowns. However, only the first two cases had meaningful steps that were taken towards sustaining the transition. This research has been built on the argument that four key factors have played important roles in transitional processes of these two cases, namely Tunisia (the transition to a democratic governance) and Egypt (the restoration of a new form of authoritarianism): the formation of the state, pact-making compromises among revolutionary actors, moderation of religious parties, and civil society activism. In addition to explaining the divergence in these two countries’ transitional processes, this research has been written in response to the prolonged pessimism that the regimes in the region are destined to stay non-democratic. / Thesis (MA) — Boston College, 2017. / Submitted to: Boston College. Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Middle Eastern Studies.

This thesis analyses the problematic trajectory of the Syrian Revolution 2011, which was inspired by the Arab Spring. It first evaluates the causes of the revolution during Bashar al-Asad's era. An era was aimed to be a transition from authoritarianism to democracy and from suppression to fair openness. It second investigates the factors behind turning the Arab Spring into a Syrian winter, plunging the country into internal war and uncontrolled violence. The research is based on a qualitative approach that includes interviews as a source of information and analysis. Factors covered are the disintegration of Syrian society as the greatest challenge for the civil uprising and mass mobilization as well as the regime's coherent inner core accounting for the regime's violence and persistence. As violence breeds violence, the revolutionaries decided to react violently towards the regime brutality descending the country into an internal war. The formulation of the Free Syrian Army was formalized, but could not transform into a proper military formation, and so could not control the spread of violence in the country. The inclination towards Jihad was evident and common, and associated with resorting to violence because the revolutionaries are Muslims, and believed in Jihad as a way to defend themselves and their families. However, Jihad became more formalized with the arrival of global Jihadists to Syria, forming Jihadist groups and controlling parts of Syria. The stance of the international community was another big obstacle helped escalating, but not terminating the conflict. A conflict could develop into a devastating regional crisis changing the structure of the Middle East and changing the international politics of this vital region.

The thesis discusses the progress or lack thereof of in the Middle East, specifically Egypt to achieve "democracy". It will critically explore the reasons why the Arab Spring happened, what were the factors and what changed in Egypt during those times until the present. I will show how it was before the revolution in Egypt which toppled ex-president Mubarak, examine the transition phase when ex-president Morsi was in power, and at the end the second revolution or coup d'état by current president El-Sisi. With that said Egypt will be compared with the other countries in the region; Tunisia, Libya and Syria, and we will see what are some of the similarities in the revolutions as well as some of the differences.

At the beginning of 2011, independence movements arose across the Middle East and stoked the fires of revolution in nations like Libya, Egypt and Syria. Colloquially known as “The Arab Spring,” the movement toppled dictatorships that had existed for decades. Those dictatorships also provided stability for foreign business conducted in their countries, including Texan oil field companies. But as civil unrest persists and the political story unfolds, Texan oil field companies continue to do business in the region, largely unabated. This report addresses the effects of the Arab Spring on the performance of select Texan oil field companies operating in Libya. / text

This thesis analyses the hirak movements that emerged in the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan in 2011. Amalgamating literature from studies of identity and defensive democratization, the thesis places two central questions into historical context: why did the hirak movements emerge in the rural tribal strongholds of the Hashemite monarchy before spreading into urban centers? And why did the founders of more urban and demographically heterogeneous hirak collectively agree in the nascent stages of their movements’ geneses to underrepresent the presence of Palestinian-Jordanians? / Graduate

After successfully overthrowing Hosni Mubarak and his government in 2011, protestors rejoiced in long-repressed nationalist fervor, hopeful for the bright future that was sure to follow. Today, three years since the triumph, political inclusion and greater economic opportunity have not arrived. Throughout this transition process, the Egyptian economy has soured, and Egyptians have begun to feel nostalgia for the days of Mubarak’s regime when political stability, albeit repressive, had at least been accompanied by economic stability. This paper seeks to discover the root causes of poor economic performance in Egypt’s recent history, examine historical cases in which governments successfully overcame similar economic hardships, and propose feasible institutional reforms and recommendations to revive Egypt’s domestic economy in light of the country’s current political landscape.

Master of Arts / Communications Studies / Charles J. Griffin / The 2011 Arab Spring Revolutions across the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region drew international attention to the collection action phenomenon of revolutions. Despite having a significant impact on today’s globalized world, revolutions have been widely unexplored by social movement rhetorical scholars. This lack of study has prompted scholars to call for the investigation of the role human agency plays during revolutions (Morris, 2000). Rhetorical scholars are well-suited to meet this call but lack a methodological framework to examine revolutions. In responding to Morris’ call and with an interest in adding to the body of rhetorical social movement literature, this thesis asks two research questions. What are the rhetorical characteristics of revolutions? Are revolutions rhetorically distinct from social movements? To answer these questions, this thesis translates Jack Goldstone’s (1998) Divergent View of Social Movements and Revolutions into a rhetorical model for studying revolutions. This adaptation of the political science model relies heavily on Leland Griffin’s (1969) and Charles Stewart’s (1980) models of social movements. Additionally, the adapted model also incorporates James Wilkinson’s (1989) discussion of revolutionary rhetorical functions. The application of the new rhetorical model to the Egyptian Arab Spring reveals revolutions rhetorically develop and function in ways that creates a clear distinction between revolutions from social movements. These findings prompt discussion of methodological and critical implications.

The purpose of this study was to analyze and compare why Yemen’s democratization process failed while Tunisia’s succeed after the Arab spring. The main question of this paper is: Why did the democratization process in Yemen failed, but succeeded in Tunisia after the Arab Spring emergence in year 2011 based on Diamonds theory? The method that applied to this study is a comparative case study in form of “Most Similar System Design” known as “MSS-design”. After applied four of Larry Diamonds nine factors, the study finally reached the answer of the main question.     The results showed that the absence of historically solid national unity, internally fragmented civil society and the military intervention of Saudi-led coalition was the main factors that caused why Yemen’s democratization process failed. On the other side the strong civil society, diplomatic peaceful pressure and the historical separation of military from the Tunisian political system was the main factors that pushed Tunisia towards democracy.

Through a qualitative analysis of messages posted on the micro-blogging application, Twitter, and qualitative research interviews with people from Egypt and the United States who were active on Twitter during the eighteen day Egyptian Revolution in 2011, this study considers why Dr. Theda Skocpol’s theory of revolution proffered in States and Social Revolutions (1979) does not work in the case of the Egyptian Revolution. Skocpol asserts that a weakening of the state vis-à-vis a dominant class within the state or other states is a necessary precondition for revolution. By examining Twitter as a mechanism through which on-the-ground activists in Egypt were able to circumvent repressive state structures and “jump-scales” to a transnational configuration of resistance, this thesis asserts that emergent technologies complicate Skocpol’s assertion that states must be weakened politically and financially prior to the execution of a successful social revolution. / text