The Arab spring and democratization. (c2012)

Abstract

For some time now scholars have debated the resilience of authoritarianism in the Middle East. Arab states used a mix of strategies to retain control, thus appearing to escape the “third wave of democratization” identified by Samuel Huntington. The Arab Spring ended this assumption, however, as new hope for democratization emerged in the region. This thesis tests some of the arguments made by the comparative politics literature on authoritarian regime breakdown against the Egyptian experience with regime transition. It does so by using the independent variables explaining authoritarian regime breakdown identified by Barbara Geddes and Valerie Bunce. The thesis traces the trajectory of regime consolidation and, subsequently, breakdown in Egypt. In so doing, it underlines the differences and similarities with other comparative cases of authoritarian regime breakdown.