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The Arab Spring and its Surprises
Author(s) -
Bayat Asef
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
development and change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.267
H-Index - 93
eISSN - 1467-7660
pISSN - 0012-155X
DOI - 10.1111/dech.12030
Subject(s) - surprise , ideology , spring (device) , politics , key (lock) , political science , political economy , history , sociology , law , computer science , engineering , computer security , communication , mechanical engineering
The occurrence, speed and spread of the ‘Arab revolutions’ took almost everyone by surprise, including the protagonists. But the real surprise lies, this essay suggests, not in how or why these revolutions came to fruition; it rather lies in revolutions’ particular attributes — their ideological orientations and political trajectories. The essay discusses the revolutions’ key (unexpected) characteristics, arguing that the Arab uprisings occurred in new ideological times.