Five years from the unexpected eruption of the so-called Arab Spring, the Middle East-North Africa region is living a period of intense turmoil, violence and social dislocation. Trying to go beyond the chronicle of events, we attempt to frame the uprisings that swept over the Arab world in a broad historical context. The mainstream narrative assumes that the “failure” of the Arab Spring is an irreversible fact. While it is indisputable that the ideals sought for by the revolutionaries of 2011 have not been realized, we contend that the trajectories taken by the post-revolutionary transitions must be analysed as dialectical open-ended processes involving the agency of protesters, the reaction of incumbent regimes and the structural conditions in which both acted. The Arab Spring and its aftermath require us to reconceptualise the idea of “transition” away from the post-Cold War teleology of democratization theory. The unipolar world of the 1990s has given way to a less clear-cut global context in which authoritarianism and democracy often overlap and may even seem to converge. Interpreting the Arab uprisings of 2011 as part of a wave of global protest driven by a strong disillusion toward democracy, therefore, is key to understand the course taken by events.
Musso, G. (2016). From the Arab Spring to the Islamic State: Revolution in Times of Disillusion. In De Cesaris V. (a cura di), One Way Trip. Essays on Mediterranean Migration. Perugia - ITA : Perugia Stranieri University Press.
From the Arab Spring to the Islamic State: Revolution in Times of Disillusion
Musso G
2016-01-01
Abstract
Five years from the unexpected eruption of the so-called Arab Spring, the Middle East-North Africa region is living a period of intense turmoil, violence and social dislocation. Trying to go beyond the chronicle of events, we attempt to frame the uprisings that swept over the Arab world in a broad historical context. The mainstream narrative assumes that the “failure” of the Arab Spring is an irreversible fact. While it is indisputable that the ideals sought for by the revolutionaries of 2011 have not been realized, we contend that the trajectories taken by the post-revolutionary transitions must be analysed as dialectical open-ended processes involving the agency of protesters, the reaction of incumbent regimes and the structural conditions in which both acted. The Arab Spring and its aftermath require us to reconceptualise the idea of “transition” away from the post-Cold War teleology of democratization theory. The unipolar world of the 1990s has given way to a less clear-cut global context in which authoritarianism and democracy often overlap and may even seem to converge. Interpreting the Arab uprisings of 2011 as part of a wave of global protest driven by a strong disillusion toward democracy, therefore, is key to understand the course taken by events.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
