INDIANA

Presented by Andrew Reynolds

Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Chair, Global Studies Curriculum

*Sponsored by Center for Constitutional Democracy, IU Maurer School of Law

When: Thursday, February 12 | 12:00 pm

Where: Maurer School of Law, Room 124

What: Several years after the Arab Spring began, democracy remains elusive in the Middle East. The Arab Spring that resides in the popular imagination is one in which a wave of mass mobilization swept the broader Middle East, toppled dictators, and cleared the way for democracy. The reality is that few Arab countries have experienced anything of the sort. While Tunisia made progress towards constitutionally entrenched participatory rule, the other countries that overthrew their rulers—Egypt, Yemen, and Libya—remain mired in authoritarianism and instability.

Elsewhere in the Arab world uprisings were suppressed, subsided or never materialized. The Arab Spring’s modest harvest cries out for explanation. Why did regime change take place in only four Arab countries and why has democratic change proved so elusive in the countries that made attempts? When rulers were ousted, the balance of power at the time of transition goes far in predicting the character of new constitutional provisions and the trajectory of democratization writ large.