Contra John Keane, we don’t need new words to describe the Arab Spring. These are democratic revolutions in the age of monitory democracy. Through active monitory procedures they may even stay democratic
A new word is needed to describe these events of recent months. They should be called ‘refolutions’, radical refusals of the old choice between reform and revolution - remarkably sensitive to the grave dangers and high costs of using violent means to get their way
The Arab revolutions of 2011 have disproved one argument about the Arabs only to raise another, says Hazem Saghieh.
What is the “Arab spring” becoming? After three months of upheaval, repression and conflict, the democracy wave in the region, including Iran, is at a crucial stage. openDemocracy authors offer concise perspectives on a complex and fluid political moment.(The first contributions in this series wer
"Corruption" is the word on every Egyptian's lips as the misuse of public funds and office is exposed from Mubarak downwards. The answer is to repeal the semi-privatisation of the state bureaucracy and introduce a minimum wage, argues Marc Michael
The Arab uprisings have proved very different in type to those in Iran, in terms of the scale, scope, both their conscious constituents and their beneficiaries, dynamics and social roots.
The end of Mubarak’s thirty years reign may mark an opportunity to revive the Egyptian universities’ founding ideals as autonomous institutions seeking knowledge for knowledge’s sake.
Egyptians managed by peaceful protest to force the removal of their president. With barely a pause, they are now engaged in building a constitutional democracy. Mansoor Mirza assesses the leading forces in the emerging political landscape.
The waves of change in the Arab world have women at the centre. But how will they fare as revolt turns towards a new political and social settlement? Rada Ivekovic considers the emerging balance.
The Arab world has spoken truth to power in ways that question the celebration of western style democracies and the ‘end of history’ marked by the ‘1989 velvet revolutions’.
Those analysing the feasibility of “Facebook revolutions” in authoritarian countries have so far veered between utopian visions and non-utopian smackdown. These approaches undermine what is in fact a complex process, which may depend on both state resources and types of communication technologies
A hurricane of change is blowing through the Arab world. Even now, many Arab regimes are still in denial. But it also challenges the west to grasp a new political reality, says Nadim Shehadi.
