Скачать или смотреть Middle East Politics, Lecture 32: Economic Causes of the Arab Spring Revolutions

In this lecture, I discuss the economic causes of the revolutions that broke out across the Arab World from 2010 to 2011. I discuss the reasons for large and growing wealth gaps across the region and within countries. In particular, I discuss the reasons for the large wealth gaps between oil rich countries in the Arab Gulf and the Arab Republics. I also discuss how the shift towards neoliberalism (capitalism) from the 1970s to the 2000s within the Arab Republics was an important factor in explaining the rising gaps in wealth within the Arab Republics such as Egypt, Tunisia, Syria, Libya, and Yemen. Cuts to social welfare spending and the public sector created unrest in these countries and labor activism. This is partly why the Arab Republics were far more likely to experience revolutions than the Arab Gulf monarchies. I also discuss more specifically the economic failures of the Gaddafi regime in Libya and why that country experienced a revolution.