Citizenship Rights and the Arab Uprisings: Towards a New Political Order
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CITIZENSHIP RIGHTS AND THE ARAB UPRISINGS: TOWARDS A NEW POLITICAL ORDER January 2015 Report written by Dr. Roel Meijer in consultation with Laila al-Zwaini Clients of Policy and Operations Evaluations Department (IOB) Ministry of Foreign Affairs The Netherlands I. Table of Contents I. Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ 1 II. Biographical information authors ................................................................................................... 4 III. List of abbreviations ........................................................................................................................ 5 Figures Figure 1. Overlapping consensus of political currents in the Arab world ........................................... 38 Figure 2. Virtuous circle of citizenship ................................................................................................ 41 Figure 3. Index of the results of the Arab uprisings ............................................................................ 72 INTRODUCTION ....................................................................................................................................... 7 1 FACTORS AND ACTORS BLOCKING A DEMOCRATIC TRANSITION ................................................. 8 1.0 Introduction ........................................................................................................................ 8 1.1 Islam .................................................................................................................................... 8 1.2 Clientelism and patronage systems .................................................................................... 9 1.3 Tribalism............................................................................................................................ 10 1.4 Class relations ................................................................................................................... 10 1.5 Economics ......................................................................................................................... 11 1.6 Authoritarian regimes ....................................................................................................... 12 1.7 The unitary state ............................................................................................................... 12 1.8 The authoritarian bargain ................................................................................................. 13 1.9 Unravelling of the authoritarian bargain .......................................................................... 13 1.10 Civil society ....................................................................................................................... 15 1.11 Political parties.................................................................................................................. 16 1.12 Depoliticization ................................................................................................................. 17 1.13 External influences ............................................................................................................ 18 1.14 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 18 1 2 THE ARAB UPRISINGS AND THE FACTORS AND ACTORS OF CHANGE ........................................ 20 2.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 20 2.1 Identifying factors and actors of change .......................................................................... 20 2.2 Social movements ............................................................................................................. 21 2.3 The uprisings ..................................................................................................................... 21 2.4 The power of youth .......................................................................................................... 24 2.5 Workers ............................................................................................................................. 25 2.6 Social media ...................................................................................................................... 25 2.7 Ideology, tactics, and common aims ................................................................................ 26 2.8 New coalitions, a new consensus ..................................................................................... 27 2.9 Politicization ...................................................................................................................... 30 2.10 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................... 32 3 CITIZENSHIP ................................................................................................................................... 34 3.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 34 3.1 Citizenship theory and the Arab world ............................................................................. 34 3.2 Overlapping consensus and democracy ........................................................................... 36 3.3 The virtuous circle of citizenship ...................................................................................... 39 4 REFORM AFTER THE ARAB UPRISINGS ......................................................................................... 42 4.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................................... 42 4.1 Social movements ............................................................................................................. 43 4.1.1 Social Movements after the uprisings .............................................................................. 43 4.1.2 Youth and the effects of the Arab uprising ....................................................................... 44 4.1.3 New Women’s movements .............................................................................................. 46 4.1.4 Ethnic and religious minorities ......................................................................................... 47 4.1.5 Reinvigorating civil society ................................................................................................ 48 4.2 Political Reform and overlapping consensus .................................................................... 50 4.2.1 Political parties, elections and the importance of coalitions ........................................... 50 4.2.2 Reform of the state, and state building ............................................................................ 55 4.3 Economic reform and social justice .................................................................................. 57 4.3.1 The need for economic reform ......................................................................................... 57 4.3.2 Political and social role of businessmen ........................................................................... 58 2 4.4 Legal Reform ..................................................................................................................... 59 4.4.1 Rule of Law and human rights .......................................................................................... 59 4.4.2 Transitional justice ............................................................................................................ 62 4.5 Security and external influences ....................................................................................... 63 4.5.1 Security and stability ......................................................................................................... 63 4.5.2 External influences ............................................................................................................ 64 CONCLUSION ......................................................................................................................................... 66 APPENDIX 1 ........................................................................................................................................... 73 BIBLIOGAPHY ........................................................................................................................................ 77 3 II. Biographical information authors Roel Meijer (b. 1956) is lecturer in Middle East history at department of Religious Studies at the Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, and Senior Associate at the Dutch think tank, the Netherlands Institute of International Relations, ‘Clingendael’. He wrote his PhD on Egypt, The Quest for Modernity: Secular Liberal and Left-wing Political Thought in Egypt, 1945-1958 (Routledge / Curzon, 2002), and has edited seven volumes, including Cosmopolitanism, Identity and Authenticity in the Middle East (Curzon, 1999), Alienation or Integration of Arab Youth: Between the Family, the State and the Street (Curzon, 2000), Global Salafism: Islam’s New Religious Movement (Hurst/Columbia UP, 2009), (translated into Arabic and Chinese) and recently, The Muslim Brotherhood in Europe (Hurst/Columbia UP, 2012). He has published widely