Lessons from the Arab Spring: Could Social Revolutions Continue to Enforce Political Changes?

social media, technology, globalization

The question examined in this research is the ability of social revolutions to enforce political changes, particularly in the Arab World, a decade past the Arab Spring of 2011. The research concentrates on four major lessons that could provide us the opportunity to examine this question. The first lesson relates to the role of new media and online campaigns in determining social changes. The combined impact of technology and social movements changed the way that traditional media and governments operate and created a new type of politics, where the presence of the public is much more apparent through social media. The second lesson relates to the role of social media and social movements in the new political landscape in the Arab World. The combination of technology and social movements became paramount in determining public agenda since information is not a monopoly anymore of the old establishment of governments and traditional media. The third lesson shows that since politics became a dialogue between politicians and the public, political stability cannot be achieved by military and security forces while ignoring the needs and aspirations of the people. This lesson shows us that democratic transition requires structural change of a state apparatus from an authoritarian or autocratic regime to a political government and democratization with initial mobilization to get rid of the old regime. This can be explained in that instability increases as the ability of political institutions to respond effectively to political demands is weakened. The fourth lesson relates to the role of governments in advancing technology. It shows us that the relations between new media and politics are not limited to social movements but rather governments today play an important role in the development of new media. The events of the Arab Spring demonstrate that the role of governments has become crucial for the global and economic development of countries while the digital landscape provides enormous opportunities for governments to engage with new policies involving digital technologies and maintain their influence in local politics and in the global arena.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.