Eight Years Later: the Political Economic Implications of the Arab Spring in the Middle East

Abstract

Keywords: Arab Spring, International Affairs, Middle East North Africa, Political Science

Abstract

The Arab Spring, though a disbursement of revolutionary events, had economic implications on Middle East North African (MENA) countries. The following scholars, Richards and Waterbury (2015), Benmamoun and Lehnert (2016), and Malik and Awadallah (2013), defend that a political transition to a democratic system both encourages and is an essential precondition for liberation, economically. Throughout the semester, students and faculty gathered research pertaining to regions affected by Arab Spring protests. The economic data researched was between 2009-2017, relating to a common question: did the protests and political revolutions of the Arab Spring (2011-present) have a positive or negative impact on the economies? The students researched and analyzed countries that represented the political implications of the Arab Spring through government coups, authoritarian survival, and democratic systems. Through this, the students found a broad range of economic implications due to the Arab Spring, which did not have uniformity. Through the analysis of Middle East North Africa (MENA) countries, different factors led to the different outcomes of the Arab Spring, which the students used to analyze and explain patterns presented from the research.