Does the Arab Spring Validate the Claims of Democratic Peace Theory - Essay Example

Running Header: Does the ‘Arab Spring’ Validate the Claims of Democratic Peace Theory? Student’s Name : Lecturer : Course Title: Date: Introduction North Africa and Middle East regions experienced the popular uprising and prodemocracy movements wave from December 2010. The Arab spring evolutions and protests spread through the areas as citizens took off to the streets to demand human rights protection, political representation, and government reforms. The most interesting and important factor of the applied revolutionary movements was the extensive founded application of nonviolent strategic civilian resistance. In this period, Arab freedom fighters, by applying nonviolent tactics host concurrently disproved two mainstreams ideas which included violence necessity in the struggle for revolution, and the natural tendency of Arab towards aggression. Ordinary Arab civilians in Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, Egypt, Syria, Yemen, and elsewhere chose to use the nonviolent weaponry arsenal at their disposal. Their actions certified that nonviolence is one of the most effective political action strategy for increasing democracy and freedom in the Arab World. This paper focuses on evaluating the Arab Spring and establishing whether the claim of the democratic peace theory uphold on the tactics the Arabs used to enhance revolution in their region. Arab Spring and Democratic Peace Theory According to democratic peace theory, the democracies hardly fight each other, since they share domestic institutions and mutual life norms that constrain the war recourse. Democratic is possibly the most powerful contribution of liberal to the debate on the reasons of peace and war. Democracies employ peaceful resolution of conflict with each other and within the local affairs (Rosatom 2003, p. 585). Therefore, democracy is highly upraised when two conflicting side consider more peaceful strategies to resolve the conflict. The concept has been highly applied in different situations in democratic nations, particularly when civil servants are fighting for their better working terms among other. It is highly upheld when the two groups confront each other without the use of violence (Christopher, 2011, p.1904). Arab is a region in the world that has been known for its authoritarian role, harsh rules, and poor employment of human rights in the region, particularly while dealing with works and women. The region has been characterized by violence and emergency of violent liberal groups with destructive missions. Nevertheless, this perfective was highly overturned by the rise of the Arab Spring (Joffé, 2011, p.515). Arab Spring demonstrated that democracy might have a chance even if there are dangers and challenges seen in the process. The masses that took to the streets in the Arab nations opposed dictatorship and not necessary using civil wars as employed in the Western nations. This was a great prove that generally, democracy still contains space. The Arab region experienced political upheavals that have irreversibly changed the Middle East (Totten, 2013, p.24). In 2010, the Muhammed Bouazizi self-immolation was a sparkle that instigated protests and spread to the surrounding cities resulting to collapsing of the Ben Ali’s long-lasting dictatorial regime in Tunisia. This initiated popular civil action over Mubarak government in Egypt. Massive of protesters who congregated in Tahrir Square forced the resignation of Mubarak, an action that ended in the power transfer to the military. Shortly after the fall of Mubarak, the demonstration over Muammer Qaddafi of Libya started in Bengazi and spread throughout the other regions of the country. Qaddafi’s government was toppled after months of obvious deadlock and with intervention of Nato. Later Syria, Yemen, and Bahrain uprisings and protests erupted, instigating a vicious repression cycle and more protest that resulted to serious internal contestation and fracturing (Erdogan, 2013, p. 18). The Arab region for a long time has been considered as an area that is considered to be very solid, compared to other parts of the world and unscathed by democratic modification for decades. The above described mass movements and mobilization towards the Middle East democratization was stunning and unexpected, a situation that has highly been labelled by scholars as the “third wave of democratization”. Although the exact type of citizen participation range from organized demonstration to civil war, and the anticipated outcome from augmented rights to complete change of regime, they were all combined in the belief that the citizens’ voice need to be heard (Bausch, 2015, p.438). Up to now, the changes of regime which have taken place have resulted to democratic states, though whether they can be classified as liberal democracies remains unclear, and the attitude they will employ toward each other in the future is yet to be uncovered as tensions in the area remain high (Plaetzer, 2014, p. 255). One of the highly profiled Arab Spring movement successes was the destruction of Egypt president Mubarak regime. This was followed by first free election in the country. During this election, all political changes were closely monitored by scholars and media, since Egypt has one of the most essential positions in the region. Egypt has since them managed to be at peace with Israel its neighbouring country and the only nation in the region that practice liberal democratic. Egypt according to Snider and Faris (2012, p.52), has been trying to make changes after an important autocratic rule, with restricted democratic experience to depend on and hard economic times that hit the country after the spring. The need for early democratic norms construction is very essential in generating democratic stability so as to avoid upsurge of extremist leaders and rebirth to autocracy. This implies that the region is still unstable and though there is much effort put to ensure the attained democratic situation, there is still a risk of going back to the old way of life (Rear, 2013, p.18). This kind of success has also been demonstrated in Iraq which has been trying to keep peace with Iran and to support the country as democratic countries do. However, their situation is still under test and time may be needed to establish the actual outcome of the current situation. The resistance of war and instead the application other more peaceful method in creating change is one of the greatest legacy that Arab uprising holds. The countries used democratic means that include demonstrations, marches, and social media, means that are highly employed by civil society in democratic nations (Davison, 2015, p. 3). Nevertheless, most of the Arab Spring based demonstrations were met with violent crackdown from government machineries and from counter demonstrators and the state created militias. The demonstrators responded to these clampdowns with violence in the same instance. However, the main intention of the demonstrators was not war; they based their strategy on peaceful and democratic ways and only considered violence was applied when the protestor were initiated by the government side (Salam, 2015, p. 123). Civil society has widely been praised by its role in the transverse Arab world democratization. Following well-developed scholarship liberal tradition on democracy transitions, the Arab uprisings have been outlined based on theories that were applied previously outside the region. Based on this thought, western critics have often stressed on the civil society role in the 2011 Yemen to Tunisia countries’ democratic transitions. The Western mantra analyses of the uprisings demonstrated that Middle East democracy is reliant on a strong civil society as a democratization precondition (Plaetzer, 2014, p.256). The civil society especially in Tunisia, Yemen and Egypt are said to have employed peaceful democratic strategies long before the Arab Uprising to fight for their rights. Their act provided a background on the employment of the democratic measures in fight for the autocratic regimes. The resistance movements employed various kinds of strategies that included strikes, sit-ins, and rallies. The labour movement in Egypt have been vibrant in trying to fight for its condition since 2004. Another technique that they employed was the use of social media which made their efforts known by everyone in the country, gaining massive support from all. Thus, the employment of the democratic measures during the Arab uprising was well calculated. Citizens had clearly used these measures in the past and enjoyed their fruits without having to experience war or violence. This also demonstrates that the democratic measures taken could have been deep rooted among the citizens of the Arab countries and thus, the uprising could be the first strong step to embrace democracy in the future (Salam, 2015, p.124). Although there are a number of scholars who apprehend the Arab Spring for the democratic revolution it brought to Middle East and North Africa, some other scholars are still not convinced that democracy was really involved. According to (Erdogan, 2013, p. 22), Arab spring could be compared to fall Soviet Union and end of communism regime. However, Arab spring lacks in a number of aspects that would justify its ability to maintain the claimed democracy. Arab lack polished solidarity movement and the current democratic forces are abnormally weak and they are not united across the Arab nations. In addition, they lack firm organizations which could penetrate into communities and mobilize reliable political support. In both Egypt and Tunisia, the best systematized opposition groups appear to be based on Islamic movement traditions that include Muslim Brotherhood and Hizb al-Nahda, an aspect that result to a big uncertainty as to whether the said groups will be dedicated to liberal democracy. The situation becomes even more multifaceted when the groups’ internal divisions are deconstructed and the holdovers hands from the previous regime are brought to the frontline (Masoud, 2011, p.120). Old regime veterans in Tunisia continue to control the transitional government, and military was highly in charge in Egypt which resulted to a developing anxiety regarding potential alliance of Islamists and military. Similarly, prospect of democratization seem to be dimmest in the Syria and Libya case, despite the destruction of the authoritarian regime. According to Erdogan (2013, p.22), the most authoritarian rules are those that increase benefaction with nonmaterial ties that include ideology, shared ethnicity, and family ties. Assad regime long survival in Syria is as a result of the strong support from Alawites, which is a minority religious group, which also controls intelligence and military establishment. In Libya case where autocracy depended for decades on family ties, the main challenge is include old regime leaders’ possible dominance and division along tribal and family lines. All this put liberal democracy in test, particularly now that the region is based on great tension and way among various regions (Wolff, 2011, p.960). Boduszynski (2013, p. 190) also argues that the domestic conditions for Arab Spring nations were not ready for democratization. This does not imply that ordinary citizens did not genuinely yarn for democracy, but it implies that there were major obstacles to developing democracy in the region. Some of these obstacles include deep ethnic splits, lack of democratic traditions and institutions, and economic underdevelopment. Consequently, at the onset, conditions of transition were not favourable to democratization. Although some of these conditions were similar to other countries when they were fighting for democracy, and which have succeeded in this battle, for instance Romania, Bulgaria, Albana, and Bosnia, Arab spring countries have more challenges than them. Some of these extra challenges include military role in fighting democracy, and young economic reforms (Boduszynski, 2013, p. 192). The success in democratization war in the above mentioned countries despite the challenges shows that there is no limit to success. Arab Uprising countries have a chance to succeed despite the added challenges as long as they remain focused to their democratization goals. Nevertheless, Arab uprising is facing more external challenges to the growth of democracy than any other country have ever faced in their fight for democratization. According to Boduszynski (2013, p. 190), there is a weak Arab Spring nations democratic leverage from Western since their will to follow a pro-democracy agenda experiences many Western competing interests for instance security. This will is further declining by recession in most western nations and general exhaustion on the part of the public and policy makers with the viewed nation-building project failure in Iraq and Afghanistan, the progressing war in Syria, and the continuing instability in Yemen, Tunisia, Egypt, and Libya. Democratic leverage of western against Arab spring nations is also compromised by a severe credibility gap with regard to the perceptions of Arabs regarding the intentions of Western. The democratic leverage is as well lowered by sensitivities associated with increase in nationalism and sovereignty, and the anti-democratic countervailing powers influence, particularly for the countries in the Gulf. Thus, the success of democracy war in the Arab spring is shaky since it is highly surrounded by external forces that may limit its ability to succeed, particularly the sovereignty and security issues (Boduszynski, 2013, p. 190). Violence based on classical theory is an important part of revolutionary processes. According to Totten (2012, p.24) mass revolutions are nearly always bloody and destructive. In his view, overturning the current world order can never be peaceful, since it means violent destruction of the current political structure. Although the citizen may want to be peaceful, the standing government cannot give up power as demanded by citizens in peace. At the end the entire situation turns to be chaotic. There were various occasion of massive retaliation to the government violent mechanism particularly in Egypt, Libya, and Syria among others. Although the citizens’ intentions were to pull down the regime peacefully, they were ready to go an extra mile to attain their goals. This according to Plattner (2011, p.7), eliminates the aspect of democratic peace during the uprising. The initial demonstrations in different Arab countries were highly characterized by peaceful demonstrations where masses used banners to pass their message to the government. Nevertheless, most governments particularly in Libya, Egypt and Tunisia could not have just listen to the voice of the people. Extra effort was needed which resulted to the involvement of NATO in Libya case. This in Plattner (2011) view eliminates the aspect of democratic peace during the struggle. In addition, the democracy in Arab uprising is also challenged based on the lack of democrats. According to Nassif (2015, p.250), the basic propensities in the regional religious and cultural practices have to be overcome instead of being used in any efforts to promote democracy and pluralism. It is assumed that intolerant religious faiths blind Arabs from taking rational decisions. It centres on jihad which is a concept that is widely perceived by the West to imply violent resistance wage or “holy war” on behalf of Islam. Jihad is regarded as a major barrier for nonviolent bombast to hold in the area (Batstone, 2014, p.30). Nevertheless, this argument has been strongly disputed claiming that Jihad is only considered as part of the Muslim’s history and its application was highly during the Mecca period. Since them, Jihad is only taught as part of Islam history. Validity of Democratic Peace Theory in Arab Spring Analysis The question on whether the democratic peace theory was upheld during the Arab spring is highly debatable. Based on the above analysis, different scholars differ on their stand regarding the matter. Those that base their arguments on the citizens’ intentions clearly support that the Arab Spring was democratic in all ways since masses went on stressed applying peaceful measures to pass their message and to enact their demands. Other than organizing for various movement used in previous democratic struggles in history, the region involved all citizens in masses to obtain their democracy. This was a unique way that clearly proved peaceful measures can also be employed revolutionary war. The also urge that a number of Middle East and North Africa nations involved in the Arab Spring are currently exercising democratic governance with Egypt having its first election. This according to them is considered a great success of democracy war. Nevertheless, there are other scholars who base their argument on the general outcome of these demonstrations. Although the citizens had employed peaceful means, the regimes they were fighting were not ready to step down peacefully and thus, there was no peaceful negotiation. The peaceful demonstrators were countered with violence from the government and in most cases they were forced to retaliate. This according to these scholars eliminated the concept of democratic peace during the Arab Spring. In addition, there are countries that are still at war sing they started the uprising movements, while others which seems to have settled down still experience great tension. In addition to this, all Arab countries are faced by both internal and external forces that can initiate war once more as the authorial rule takes over. All these are used by critics to nullify the concept of democratic peace in Arab Spring. Conclusion Democratic peace advocates for peaceful coexistence where the two conflicting parties are willing to negotiate without employing violent measures. It advocate for liberal democracy. Although it is evident that citizens in the Arab region employed democratic measures to fight authoritarian governances, it is evident that they did not receive similar treatment from the regimes they were fighting. In this regard, it cannot be exclusively concluded that democratic peace theory was employed. Their democratic measures failed to influence peaceful negotiations with their governments. As a result, civil war was partly involved in bringing down various regimes that include Libya, Egypt and Tunisia. Even after successful topping of various authoritarian regimes in different Arabs nations, most scholars have agreed that there is great tension among the Arabic nations which makes it hard to conclude on the success of democratic war in these nations. Most nations are experiencing internal and external forces that include tribal and religion divide, strong authoritarian ties, transfer of authoritarian leaders into the new regime, poor leverage from Western nation due to sovereignty and security issues among other aspects. All these factors make it hard to conclude on the success of the democratic wars in the region. 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