Youth socio-economic and political grievances: Bringing the ‘Political’ back into understanding contestation in the MENA

ABSTRACT

Based on the quantitative and qualitative fieldwork of the POWER2YOUTH (P2Y) project in six MENA countries (Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Turkey, Tunisia, Occupied Palestinian Territories) this article analyses the relation between young people’s economic grievances, their satisfaction with their regimes’ governance and the extent to which they are politically mobilized. What is the relation between socio-economic and political grievances and contestation in the MENA? This article demonstrates the importance of bringing politics back into understanding contestation and mobilization in the MENA. It challenges the general narrative that contends that economic grievances, especially unemployment, are the main drivers for public discontent and contestation. It demonstrates that socio-economic grievances develop into political grievances and that the amalgam of both socio-economic and political grievances is linked to young peoples’ tendencies to protest against their respective regimes.

KEYWORDS:

• Youth
• contention
• MENA
• social grievances
• economic grievances
• political grievances

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank Daniela Pioppi and Maria Cristina Paciello for coordinating and leading the P2Y research project. I would also like to thank all country research teams, for their enormous efforts. I would like to thank the Egyptian research team in particular, Hatem Zayed, Rana Gaber, Alia Alaa Eddin, Batoul Al Mehdar and Hood Ahmed.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. For more information on the fieldwork, see the Introduction to this Special Issue, ‘Beyond the Impasse? Dynamics of Youth Agency in Times of Crisis,’ Mediterranean Politics XX.

2. For instance during the first week of the Lebanese uprising in 2019, Hezbollah’s leader Hassan Nasrallah did not want the government to resign, though the prime minister Hariri, is his arch sectarian rival. See for instance, Associated Press, ‘Hezbollah Supporters Break Up Lebanon Protest Camp,’ online at: http://voanews.com/middle-east/hezbollah-supporters-break -lebanon-protest-camp

3. For more analysis on the Raba’a massacre please refer to Grimm, J. & Harders, C. (2018). Unpacking the Effects of Repression. Social Movement Studies 17 (1) p. 1–18.

4. In Egypt, these cannot be verified quantitatively, since questions on unconventional participation and satisfaction with governance were not allowed to be asked in the questionnaire by the authorities.

5. See for instance, University World News, ‘Engineering students strike in spite of negotiations’, 20 February 2015, http://www.universityworldnews.com/article.php?story=20150219095815688.

6. See for instance, Jadaliyya, ‘Pro-AKP Media Figures Continue to Target Academics for Peace,’ online at: http://www.jadaliyya.com/pages/index/24339/pro-akp-media-figures-continue-to-target-academics Accessed 7 June 2016. See also Mustafa Akyol, ‘Turkey’s Authoritarian Drift,’ online at: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/11/opinion/turkeys-authoritarian-drift-election-erdogan.html?_r=0.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union’s Seventh Framework Programme [Grant No. 612782].