Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-s2hrs Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T14:40:16.933Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Cross-Class and Cross-Ideological Convergences over Time: Insights from the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutionary Uprisings

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 January 2019

Gianni Del Panta
Gianni Del Panta*
Affiliation:
Gianni Del Panta, Department of Social, Political and Cognitive Sciences, University of Siena, Siena, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. Email: jofplant@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

The 2010–11 Arab uprisings continue to prompt a great deal of discussion. By focusing specifically on Tunisia and Egypt, this article aims to present a more dynamic account of revolutionary moments in these countries. It does so in two ways. First, the changing nature of structures and mechanisms of authoritarian domination over time is explored. Second, the convergences of different social classes and political forces during the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt are not treated as unique and static occurrences. By showing how the two revolutionary networks gradually emerged and enlarged, a truer picture is thus provided. By doing so, this article aims to contribute to a more nuanced interpretation of the two revolutionary outbursts and to the development of the fourth generation of revolutionary studies.

Keywords

authoritarian regimeEgyptTunisiaauthoritarianism breakdownrevolutionary convergenceArab uprisings
Type
Articles
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , October 2020 , pp. 634 - 652
Copyright
Copyright © The Author 2019. Published by Government and Opposition Limited and Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdelrahman, M (2014) Egypt’s Long Revolution: Protest Movements and Uprisings. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Achcar, G (2013) The People Want: A Radical Explanation of the Arab Uprisings. London: Saqi Books.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alexander, A and Bassiouny, M (2014) Bread, Freedom, Social Justice: Workers and the Egyptian Revolution. London: Zed.Google Scholar
Angrist, MP (2013) Understanding the Success of Mass Civic Protest in Tunisia. Middle East Journal 67(4), 547–564.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ayeb, H (2011) Social and Political Geography of the Tunisian Revolution: The Alfa Grass Revolution. Review of African Political Economy 38(129), 467–479.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bayat, A (2017) Revolution without Revolutionaries: Making Sense of the Arab Spring. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beck, C (2014) Reflections on the Revolutionary Wave in 2011. Theory and Society 43(2), 197–223.10.1007/s11186-014-9213-8CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beinin, J (2016) Workers and Thieves: Labor Movements and Popular Uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Beissinger, MR, Jamal, AA and Mazur, K (2015) Explaining Divergent Revolutionary Coalitions: Regime Strategies and the Structuring of Participation in the Tunisian and Egyptian Revolutions. Comparative Politics 48(1), 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellin, E (2012) Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism: Lessons from the Arab Spring. Comparative Politics 44(1), 127–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, R (2013) Abandoned at the Palace: Why the Tunisian Military Defected from the Ben Ali Regime in January 2011. Journal of Strategic Studies 36(2), 205–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chouikha, L and Geisser, V (2010) Retour sur la révolte du bassin minier: les cinq leçons politiques d’un conflit social inédit. L’Année du Maghreb 6, 415–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clarke, K (2014) Unexpected Brokers of Mobilization: Contingency and Networks in the 2011 Egyptian Uprising. Comparative Politics 46(4), 379–397.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
De Smet, B (2016) Gramsci on Tahrir: Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Egypt. London: Pluto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dix, RH (1984) Why Revolutions Succeed and Fail. Polity 16(3), 423–446.10.2307/3234558CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Durac, V (2015) Social Movements, Protest Movements and Cross-Ideological Coalitions: The Arab Uprisings Re-Appraised. Democratization 22(2), 239–258.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Feltrin, L (2018) Labour and Democracy in the Maghreb: The Moroccan and Tunisian Trade Unions in the 2011 Arab Uprisings. Economic and Industrial Development, published online early, August. https://doi.org/10.1177/0143831X18780316/.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foran, J (2005) Taking Power: On the Origins of Third World Revolutions. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511488979CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Foran, J (2014) Beyond Insurgency to Radical Social Change: The New Situation. Studies in Social Justice 8(1), 5–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gobe, E (2010) The Tunisian Bar to the Test of Authoritarianism: Professional and Political Movements in Ben Ali’s Tunisia (1990–2007). Journal of North African Studies 15(3), 333–347.10.1080/13629380903251478CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstone, JA (2001) Towards a Fourth Generation of Revolutionary Theory. Annual Review of Political Science 4, 139–187.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goldstone, JA (2011) Cross-Class Coalitions and the Making of the Arab Revolts of 2011. Swiss Political Science Review 17(4), 457–462.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, J (2001) No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements, 1945–1991. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, J (2011) Why We Were Surprised (Again) by the Arab Spring. Swiss Political Science Review 17(4), 452–456.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Goodwin, J and Skocpol, T (1989) Explaining Revolutions in the Contemporary Third World. Politics and Society 17(4), 489–509.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hanieh, A (2013) Lineages of Revolt: Issues of Contemporary Capitalism in the Middle East. Chicago: Haymarket.Google Scholar
Hatab, S (2018) Abortive Regime Transitions in Egypt: Pro-Democracy Alliance and Demand-Making Framework. Democratization 25(4), 579–596.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Haugbølle, S and Bandak, A (2017) The Ends of Revolution: Rethinking Ideology and Time in the Arab Uprisings. Middle East Critique 26(3), 191–204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holmes, AA (2012) There Are Weeks When Decades Happen: Structure and Strategy in the Egyptian Revolution. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 17(4), 391–410.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huntington, SP (1968) Political Order in Changing Societies. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Jasper, JM (2010) Social Movement Theory Today: Toward a Theory of Action? Sociology Compass 4(11), 965–976.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ketchley, N (2017) Egypt: In a Time of Revolution: Contentious Politics and the Arab Spring. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuran, T (1995) Private Truths, Public Lies: The Social Consequences of Preference Falsification. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Kurzman, C (2004) Can Understanding Undermine Explanation? The Confused Experience of Revolution. Philosophy of Social Sciences 34(3), 328–351.10.1177/0048393104266687CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, G (2005) Negotiated Revolutions: The Czech Republic, South Africa, and Chile. London: Ashgate.Google Scholar
Lawson, G (2016) Within and Beyond the ‘Fourth Generation’ of Revolutionary Theory. Sociological Theory 34(2), 106–127.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lynch, M (2012) The Arab Uprising. New York: Public Affair.Google Scholar
Marfleet, P (2016) Egypt: Contested Revolution. London: Pluto Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nassif, HB (2015) A Military Besieged: The Armed Forces, the Police, and the Party in Ben Ali’s Tunisia, 1987–2011. International Journal of Middle East Studies 47(1), 65–87.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nepstad, SE (2013) Mutiny and Nonviolence in the Arab Spring: Exploring Military Defections and Loyalty in Egypt, Bahrain, and Syria. Journal of Peace Research 50(3), 337–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Parsa, M (2000) States, Ideologies, and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of Iran, Nicaragua, and the Philippines. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.10.1017/CBO9780511491054CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pearlman, W (2013) Emotions and the Microfoundations of the Arab Uprisings. Perspectives on Politics 11(2), 387–409.10.1017/S1537592713001072CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritter, D (2015) The Iron Cage of Liberalism. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Roccu, R (2013) David Harvey in Tahrir Square: The Dispossessed, the Discontented and the Egyptian Revolution. Third World Quarterly 34(3), 423–440.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scott, JC (1990) Domination and the Arts of Resistance: Hidden Transcripts. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Sewell, WH (1985) Ideologies and Social Revolutions: Reflections on the French Case. Journal of Modern History 57(1), 57–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sewell, WH (1996) Historical Events as Transformations of Structures: Inventing Revolution at the Bastille. Theory and Society 25(6), 841–881.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Skocpol, T (1979) States and Social Revolutions: A Comparative Analysis of France, Russia, and China. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tilly, C (1973) Does Modernization Breed Revolution? Comparative Politics 5(3), 425–447.10.2307/421272CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trotsky, L (2017 [1932]) The History of the Russian Revolution. London: Penguin.Google Scholar
Volpi, F (2017) Revolution and Authoritarianism in North Africa. London: Hurst.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weyland, K (2012) The Arab Spring: Why the Surprising Similarities with the Revolutionary Wave of 1848? Perspectives on Politics 10(4), 917–934.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickham-Crowley, T (1992) Guerrillas and Revolution in Latin America: A Comparative Study of Insurgencies and Regimes since 1956. Princeton: Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yousfi, H (2015) UGTT: une passion Tunisienne. Enquête sur les syndicalistes en révolution 2011–2014. Tunis: IRMC-Med Ali.Google Scholar
Zemni, S (2013) From Socio-Economic Protest to National Revolt: The Labour Origins of the Tunisian Revolution. In Nouri G (ed.), The Making of the Tunisian Revolution: Contexts, Architects, Prospects. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, pp. 127–146.Google Scholar