Popular Contention, Regime, and Transition: Arab Revolts in Comparative Global Perspective
Eitan Y. Alimi, Avraham Sela, and Mario Sznajder
Abstract
This book puts the recent Arab revolts in comparative global perspective, as a means to a larger end: to flesh out similarities and to draw parallels between democratic and authoritarian-like regimes. It is based on the notion that while contention in authoritarian settings is different from that in liberal democratic ones, it is not different in kind. Consciously avoiding a teleological-like normative approach and while respecting and being mindful of each case’s particularities, contributors to this volume broaden the comparative perspective of the recent wave of Middle Eastern and North Afr ... More
This book puts the recent Arab revolts in comparative global perspective, as a means to a larger end: to flesh out similarities and to draw parallels between democratic and authoritarian-like regimes. It is based on the notion that while contention in authoritarian settings is different from that in liberal democratic ones, it is not different in kind. Consciously avoiding a teleological-like normative approach and while respecting and being mindful of each case’s particularities, contributors to this volume broaden the comparative perspective of the recent wave of Middle Eastern and North African (MENA) revolts with non-MENA revolts, an undertaking that has been mostly based on similarities in basic conditions and outcomes and restricted to MENA countries. Instead of treating MENA countries as monolithic and essentializing them, as the term “Arab Spring” does, or seeking to identify similar sources of discontent or “silver bullet”-like factors, the book privileges a focus on the dynamics of contentious politics as they apply to the intricate, contingent, and indeterminate relationship among popular contention, regime, and transition. By asking what cycles of contention in other parts of the world can tell us about revolts in the Arab world, and what the cycles of contention in the Arab world can tell us about contentious politics more generally, the book maintains a productive and useful balance between theory and empirics.
Keywords:
popular contention,
regime type,
transition,
cycle of contention,
comparative perspective,
Arab,
non-Arab,
revolt,
comparative historical analysis,
MENA
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2016 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780190203573 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: August 2016 |
DOI:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780190203573.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Eitan Y. Alimi, editor
Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Avraham Sela, editor
Shirley Diamond Chair, Department of International Relations, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mario Sznajder, editor
Professor and Leon Blum Chair on Political Science, Department of Political Science, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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