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Abstract
The basic characteristics and historic significance of the Arab uprisings of 2010–2011 are given a multitude of interpretations, not least in light of the dramatic events that have followed. This article seeks to understand the uprisings as expressions of an unfolding crisis in the relationship between the rulers and the ruled in the region within a historic-sociological approach to citizenship as a “contractual relationship.” A brief discussion of Egyptian developments is used to illustrate the approach. The mass mobilization in the 1950s and 1960s inspired by Nasserism and the “authoritarian bargaining” introduced at the time is contrasted with the demands for a new social contract that mobilized millions during the recent uprisings. The uprisings clearly represent a critical juncture in contemporary Arab history, but their long-term impact on the direction of the future political order in the Arab region remains an open question.
Notes
1. The events have no firmly established designation in the literature, both “spring,” “uprising,” and “revolution” are commonly used, “awakening” less often. I find “Arab uprising” as the most useful descriptive term, but also the popular term “Arab Spring,” especially when referring to the demonstrations taking place in the early part of 2011. “Revolution” indicates a fundamental change in the political order, not only a challenge to that order. Currently, we may be in the midst of an Arab revolution, but the ambiguous developments in the wake of the uprisings, with the display of forceful counterforces, makes it too early to tell.
2. The huge demonstration on the Tiananmen Square in Beijing in June 1989 had many of the same characteristics. It had the potential of threatening the Communist regime, but it was quelled with the use of overwhelming military force and did not spread throughout the country.
3. Nourreddine Jebnoun, “Tunisia’s Glorious Revolution and its Implications,” in Bassam Haddad, Rosie Bsheer, and Ziad Abu-Rish, eds., The Dawn of the Arab Uprisings: End of the Old Order? (London: Pluto, 2012), 60.
4. Zaid Eyadat, “Arab Revolutions of 2011: Revolution of Dignity,” Change and Opportunities in the Emerging Mediterranean (Valletta: University of Malta, 2011), 3–19.
5. A classic contribution in the field of macro-historical studies is Seymour M. Lipset and Stein Rokkan, “Cleavage Structures, Party Systems and Voter Alignments: An Introduction,” in Lipset and Rokkan, eds., Party Systems and Voter Alignments (New York: Free Press, 1967).
6. See, for example, Giovanni Capoccia and R. Daniel Kelemen, “The Study of Critical Junctures. Theory, Narrative, and Counterfactuals in Historical Institutionalism,” World Politics 59 (April 2007), 341–369.
7. Roel Meijer, “Political Citizenship and Social Movements in the Arab World,” in Hein Anton Van der Heijden, ed., Handbook of Political Citizenship and Social Movements, (Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 2014, 628–660).
8. Roel Meijer, “Citizenship Rights—A New Foundation for the Arab World after the Arab Uprisings?” Draft manuscript 2014: 32, cited with permission from the author.
9. Marwan Muasher, “Year Four of the Arab Awakening,” Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, December 12, 2013.
10. Giacomo Luciani, ed., The Arab State (London: Routledge, 1990).
11. Iliya Harik, “The Origins of the Arab State System,” in Giacomo Luciani, 26.
12. Augustus Richard Norton, ed., Civil Society in the Middle East (Leiden: Brill, Vol. 1 & 2, 1995/1996).
13. Stig Stenslie and Kjetil Selvik, Stability and Change in the Modern Middle East (London: Routledge 2011).
14. Meijer, “Political Citizenship and Social Movements in the Arab World.”
15. A well-known case is the arrest of Professor Saad Eddin Ibrahim, one of the most prominent defenders of democracy and the civil society idea in the Arab world and the founder of the renowned Ibn Khaldoun Center for Development Studies in Cairo. In June 2000, the police raided the center, destroyed computers and inventory, and arrested Dr. Ibrahim with his 27-member staff for allegedly defaming Egypt’s image abroad. Dr. Ibrahim was sentences to seven years in prison, but he was released after three years following an international campaign for his release and a retrial clearing him of all charges.
16. Meijer, “Political Citizenship and Social Movements,” 629.
17. Steven Heydemann (2007), Upgrading Authoritarianism in the Arab World, Analysis Paper No. 13, Sabab Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution; Eva Bellin, “Reconsidering the Robustness of Authoritarianism in the Middle East: Lessons from the Arab Spring,” Comparative Politics 44 (2): 127–149 (2012); Joshua Stacher, Adaptable Autocrats: Regime Power in Egypt and Syria (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2012).
18. Two international conferences with a specific focus on citizenship in the Middle East have been organized in 2014: Arab Citizenship in the New Political Era, organized by the Norwegian Centre for Human Rights, University of Oslo, and the Middle East and North Africa Research Group, Ghent University, hosted by Université Muhammed V, Rabat, May 28–30, 2014; The Impact of Arab Uprisings on Citizenship in the Arab World, organized and hosted by University of Balamand, November 12–14, 2014.
19. I prefer not to use “social contract,” a term often used to designate the relationship between the individual and the society in the tradition from Jean-Jacques Rousseau and his Contract Sociale. The problem as I see it is the normative connotations this involves regarding the role of citizens in society and direct forms of democracy.
20. Nils A. Butenschøn, “State, Power, and Citizenship in the Middle East. A Theoretical Introduction,” in Nils A. Butenschøn, Uri Davis, and Manuel Hassassian, eds., Citizenship and the State in the Middle East. Approches and Applications (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2000), 4.
21. Michael Walzer, Spheres of Justice: A Defence of Pluralism and Equality (Oxford: Blackwell, 1994), 31.
22. Citizenship rights are allocated to and distributed among those who are legally recognized as citizens of the state, and regulated by the laws of the state, whereas human rights, regulated by international conventions, are universal and with few exceptions equal for everyone who lives under the jurisdiction of the state, citizens and noncitizens alike. See Nils A. Butenschøn, “Citizenship and Human Rights. Some Thoughts on a Complex Relationship,” in M. Bergsmo, ed., Human Rights and Criminal Justice for the Downtrodden. Essays in Honour of Asbjørn Eide (Leiden: Nijhoff, 2003). See also Asbjørn Eide, “Citizenship and International Human Rights Law. Status, Evolution, and Challenges,” in Nils A. Butenschøn et al., 2000.
23. Thomas H. Marshall, “Citizenship and Social Class,” in Class, Citizenship and Social Development (New York: Anchor, 1949/1965); Reinhard Bendix, Nation-Building and Citizenship. Studies of Our Changing Social Order (New Brunswick: Transaction, 1964/1996); Seymour M. Lipset and Stein Rokkan, eds., Party Systems and Voter Alignments (New York: Free Press, 1967); Charles Tilly, “The Emergence of Citizenship in France and Elsewhere.”
24. Charles Tilly, The Formation of National States in Western Europe (Princeton: Princeton University Press 1975), 142.
25. See Wikipedia under the search word “No taxation without representation.”
26. Charles Tilly, Citizenship, Identity, and Social History (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996); Charles Tilly, Identities, Boundaries, and Social Ties (Boulder: Paradigm, 2005). See also Mark Helbing, “Struggling over Citizenship and Cultural Boundaries: Charles Tilly’s Constructivist Approach.” Swiss Political Science Review 15 (2): 369–375 (2009); Stein Rokkan, Citizens, Elections, Parties: Approaches to the Comparative Study of the Processes of Development (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1970).
27. Elisabeth Picard, “Arab Military in Politics: From Revolutionary Plot to Authoritarian State,” in Luciani, 190.
28. Adeed Dawisha, “Arab Regimes: Legitimacy and Foreign Policy,” in Luciani, 291.
29. Walid Khazziha, “The Impact of Palestine on Arab Politics,” in Luciani, 302–303.
30. Cited and translated from Arabic in Ayubi, 204.
31. Meijer, “Political Citizenship and Social Movements,” 639–640.
32. Nazih N. Ayubi, Over-stating the Arab State. Politics and Society in the Middle East (London: I.B. Tauris 1995), 198.
33. Meijer, “Political Citizenship and Social Movements,” 642.
34. Nils A. Butenschøn, “Enhet som motiv og dilemma i arabisk politikk” (“Unity as Motive and Dilemma in Arab Politics”), in Svein Gjerdåker, ed., Nasjonalstaten under Press? (The Nations-State under Pressure?) (Oslo: Cappelen Norsk forlag 1994), 213–237.
35. Ayubi, Over-stating the Arab State, 199.
36. B. K. Rutherford, Egypt after Mubarak: Liberalism, Islam, and Democracy in the Arab World (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), cited in Meijer, “Political Citizenship and Social Movements,” 642.
37. Meijer, “Political Citizenship and Social Movements,” 643.
38. International Business Times, January 27, 2011, http://www.ibtimes.com/current-protests-egypt-recall-bread-riots-1977-260443 (accessed November 24, 2014).
39. Jack Shenker, “Egypt’s Rulers Tighten Grip Amid Claims of Election Fraud and Intimidation,” The Guardian, November 30, 2010. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/nov/30/egypt-poll-electoral-fraud-claims (accessed November 24, 2014).