My research paper is on the evolution of Tunisia and Egypt’s political systems since the “Arab Spring” of 2011. While Tunisia, as of 2020, came out of the Arab Spring a fragile democracy but a democracy that the NGO Freedom House categorizes as “Free” Egypt, on the other hand, went from having its first free and fair elections for its President and Parliament to a dictatorship that, according to some regional experts, is worse than the one they overthrew in the Arab Spring (). Although Tunisia and Egypt are two different countries with different histories, they do share many things in common. Things having only known dictatorships since their independence, both being majority Arab and Muslim nations, and both country’s governments seen the U.S/West as “good partners” in efforts like the war on terror.
However, despite these similarities, Tunisia is now a free and democratic country, where people (for the most part) can speak, write, and protest like in any other democratic country like the U.S. Egyptians, on the other hand, have elections where the winner is already decided and serious opposition to the government is swiftly suppressed. The question that this paper wants to ask is why the two countries took the paths that they take. The hypothesis that this paper presents is the following two points are the main reason why Tunisia succeeded, and Egypt failed.
One, the army in Tunisia was not the main pillar in the government of Tunisia before the Arab Spring, in Egypt is was. Second and finally, Tunisia wasn’t seen as “important”, so people don’t usually pay it much attention. Egypt, on the other hand, is considered the “Mother of the Arab World” and its importance was significant enough that countries like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates would try and ultimately succeeded in helping to produce a counter-revolution, which would put the army back in charge and end Egypt’s experiment in democracy.
