Tunisia and The Arab Spring: The Exception or The Norm?

Abstract

The Arab Spring was conceived in Tunisia on December 17, 2010, when a street vendor, Mohammed Bouazizi self-immolated. On January 14, 2011, the Arab Spring was born under the name of the Jasmine revolution that echoed across the rest of the Arab world. Some regimes were toppled, others still stand till today but crumble from within. 12 years later, the West are still obsessed with how much of a failure the Arab Spring has been, looking at it with myopic lens, focusing more on the instability of the region, especially the Middle East, overshadowing the successful and peaceful transition Tunisians had after a 23-year long dictatorship under Zine El Abidine Ben Ali. In this thesis, I will attempt to flesh out the main reasons behind the case of Tunisia being the only Arab country that has transitioned into a democracy during the first 10 years of the Arab spring. To achieve this purpose, I will be adopting two approaches; A retrospective one that examines the history of geopolitics of the MENA region that will lay out key foundations for why the Arab countries did not experience democratic transitions unlike Tunisia. The introspective approach will lay the ground for the analysis of the internal factors that made Tunisia stand out and experience a successful democratic transition during the suggested target timeline. This will be based on a survey of the nature of foreign interference and influence in the MENA region, especially following World War II and ever since the beginning of the cold war.