Is the Arab Spring Failing

Josef Reuther
811

    In the article, "Has The Arab Spring Failed" by Upfront Magazine's author Patricia Smith, the revolts of several middle eastern countries are discussed, and how despite that many of them have been successful in overthrowing their dictators these countries are still poorly ruled.
    One piece of evidence that substantiates this claim is that in June of 2012, Morsi a member of the Muslim Brotherhood was elected into office in Egypt. Under Morsi's rule Egypt started having electricity outages quickly followed by gas becoming scarce. Instead of solving these issues "Morsi enacted measures that restricted freedoms and moved closer to Islamic Law," as Patricia Smith aptly stated. As can be seen, although Egypt fought hard to overthrow its dictator, those who came into power following him also had the wrong ideas for Egypt. When Morsi was removed from office for his strict Islamic doctrine by the army many Islamic Egyptians revolted against the army which resulted in more than 600 deaths and over 4,000 injuries in a span of 12 hours alone. Even though Egypt managed to get rid of its dictator it still struggles to get on the path of democracy.
    Another piece of evidence that corroborates this claim about the revolts in the Middle East is that Libya also managed to oust Muammar el-Qaddafi, nonetheless however Libya now finds itself ruled by a series of armed militia groups who control the nation and fill in for a proper president. Although Libyans thought that getting rid of their dictator would solve their issues, Libya currently finds itself disorganized and in a catastrophic state. Tunisia, another country inspired by the Arab Spring, replaced its dictator with an Islamist government still finds itself in a very fragile state. As can be seen, although several countries have succeeded in defeating their dictators many of the Arab people living in these countries do not find themselves living in better conditions than they did before their revolts.
    One last piece of evidence that supports this claim about the Arab Spring is that as Patricia Smith stated "Arab countries that had suffered political and economic stagnation under decades of autocratic rule were poorly equipped to build new governments." The countries that revolted against their dictators are not in proper shape to rebuild and improve their governments. Egypt being the largest of the middle eastern countries has a large influence on the other countries. If democracy is not able to properly function in Egypt many experts believe that democracy will not work in other countries either.
    As can clearly be seen although several Middle Eastern countries have succeeded in overthrowing their dictators the most find themselves still not living under a properly ruled government. Egypt replaced its tyranny with a democracy, however even though this gave the public voice the newly elected president had different ideas for Egypt;.