Democracy after the Arab Spring?
The cases of Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36311/2237-7743.2020.v9n3.p604-624Keywords:
Democratização, Poliarquia, Primavera ÁrabeAbstract
What are the paths taken towards democratization by the countries that passed through the Arab Spring and had their governments deposed? The objective of the article is to analyze the electoral democracy indexes of the countries that had governments deposed by the Arab Spring (Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen and Libya). The working hypothesis suggest that the regimes’ breakdown in these countries led to a path of simultaneous increase in civil and political rights. In other words, those breakdowns led to a simultaneous increase in the two dimensions that lead to Polyarchy: contestation and inclusiveness. To test this hypothesis, a quantitative approach was adopted through a descriptive analysis of democracy, civil freedom and rights indexes presents in the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem), Freedom House and the contestation and inclusiveness indicators present in the Quality of Government (QoG). The results suggest that only Tunisia and Libya showed a simultaneous evolution of civil and political freedoms after 2011 and only Tunisia made the transition into a democratic regime.
Downloads
References
ANDERSON, Lisa. Early Adopters” and “Neighborhood Effects. In: The Arab Spring. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2012. p. 27-32.
BAKIS, J. Karakoç; KARAKOÇ, Jülide. Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Before and After the Arab Uprisings. Springer, 2015.
BELLIN, Eva. Reconsidering the robustness of authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring. Comparative Politics, v. 44, n. 2, p. 127-149, 2012.
BÖLME, Selin M. The Roots of Authoritarianism in the Middle East. In: Authoritarianism in the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2015. p. 7-37.
COPPEDGE, Michael et al. V-Dem Dataset v8. 2018.
COPPEDGE, Michael; ALVAREZ, Angel; MALDONADO, Claudia. Two persistent dimensions of democracy: Contestation and inclusiveness. The Journal of Politics, v. 70, n. 3, p. 632-647, 2008.
DAHL, Robert. Poliarquia (edição atualizada). São Paulo: Edusp, 2005.
FRAIHAT, Ibrahim. Unfinished revolutions: Iêmen, Libya, and Tunisia after the Arab spring. Yale University Press, 2016.
GAUSE III, F. Gregory. Why Middle East studies missed the Arab Spring: The myth of authoritarian stability. Foreign Affairs, p. 81-90, 2011.
HENRY, Clement; JANG, Ji-Hyang. The Arab Spring: Will it Lead to Democratic Transitions?. Springer, 2013.
HUNTINGTON, Samuel P. The Third Wave: Democratization in the late twentieth century. University of Oklahoma Press. 1991.
KING, Gary. Replication, replication. PS: Political Science & Politics, v. 28, n. 3, p. 444-452, 1995.
LIJPHART, Arend. Patterns of democracy: Government forms and performance in thirty-six countries. Yale University Press, 2012.
LIMA, Tiago Levi Diniz. O Processo de transição de regime no Egito e na Tunísia. 2014.
LINZ, Juan J.; STEPAN, Alfred. A transição e consolidação da democracia: a experiência do sul da Europa e da América do Sul. Paz e Terra, 1999.
MACPHERSON, Crawford Brough. A democracia liberal: origens e evolução. Zahar Editores, 1977.
MIGUEL, Luis Felipe. Teoria democrática atual: esboço de mapeamento. 2005.
OTTAWAY, Marina. Beyond the façade: political reform in the Arab World. Carnegie Endowment, 2008.
SARTORI, Giovanni. A Teoria da Democracia Revisitada: O Debate Contemporâneo. São Paulo, Editora Ática, 1994.
SCHEIDEL, Walter. Escape from Rome: the failure of empire and the road to prosperity. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 2019.
STASAVAGE, David. The Decline and Rise of Democracy. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. 2020.
STEPAN, Alfred. Tunisia's transition and the twin tolerations. Journal of Democracy, v. 23, n. 2, p. 89-103, 2012.
TEORELL, Jan et al. The quality of government dataset. The Quality of Government Institute University of Göteborg. Göteborg, 2018.
VANDEWALLE, Diederik. Libya after the Civil War: The Legacy of the Past and Economic Reconstruction. In: The Arab Spring. Palgrave Macmillan, New York, 2012. p. 185-210.
