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1 A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF THE “ARAB SPRING” MOVEMENT IN EGYPT, LIBYA AND SYRIA: ANALYZING INITIAL CAUSES, GOVERNMENT RESPONSES AND CURRENT REALITIES
Theodore Shull
November 28, 2013
TABLE OF CONTENTS Introduction; Research statement and Research Question............................................................................................1 Part I: Background and Historical Context leading to Revolt......................................................................................2 Part II: The Changing Season: Protests in the Region, and government processes to retain power ............................3 Part III: Current domestic realities and how conditions have worsened for millions.....................................................4 Endnotes and Sources...............................................................................................................................................6 Appendix A & B……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..6
This research paper examines three of the governments affected by the Arab Spring that have fought with everything in their arsenal to retain power, responding in a very brutal fashion to cling to whatever measure of control they still possess. On the surface, a casual observer of events in the middleeast and North Africa, over the last three years might view the Arab Spring as the time when democracy finally arrived in a region that has only known dictatorship and war. Others may view the revolutionary movement as a “well-organized and cohesive group of youth who took to the streets with one voice, freedom” (Angrist, 2011), and whether chanted, texted, tweeted, or screamed, it was loud enough to defeat military force sent to crush them. This “Facebook” and “Twitter” call to action was answered by millions, who, fed up with a lack of jobs and the vast gap between the well-to-do and those that could not afford to buy food, rose up at almost the same instant to demand change. And it appeared that the youth movement could scream loud enough that governments, run by a much older generation, started to crumble before their very eyes. While this somewhat romantic notion of a democratic uprising and revolution shows great resolve and courage of these citizens, these governments did not fade away but instead brutally attacked and killed thousands (in Syria, hundreds of thousands) of their own civilians, and some have dissolved into civil war 1. Why have these three regimes responded with a “knee jerk” reaction of extreme violence to the outcry of (mostly) reasonable demands, from their own citizens