The political, economic and social factors contributing to the emergence of the Arab Spring in Tunisia in 2010-2011

Abstract

This paper provides an analysis of the main causes of the Arab Spring in Tunisia in 2010-2011 which brou-ght down Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali’s government and resulted in the democratization of the African country. Its outline follows the three main factors which contributed to the emer-gence of the revolution. Firstly, political factors such as corruption and state violence created an unstable environment favouring revolution and fuelled and increased the population’s will to rebel and change the situation of the country. Secondly, economic factors like unemployment and a high inflation were one of the reasons the people were unhappy and wanted change. Econ-omic causes also explain the universality of the message of the Jasmine revolution and the unique participation of the youth in the protests. Finally, social factors such as the high use of social media like Facebook and Twitter and the “youth bulge” of the Arab region provide another expla-nation for the inclusion of young adults in the conflict. Social media also explains how the revolution developed to last and sustain in time, resulting in the demo-cratization of Tunisia, the only country having participated in the Arab Spring achieving this. In addition, this paper links the emergence of the Arab Spring in Tunisia with a general theory on the causes of revolutions. Indeed, Good-win’s general analysis on revolutions which focuses on political factors, named the state-centred perspective, explained in his book “No Other Way Out”, can be used to explain how revolution began but lacks further economic and social analysis.