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| author | Jared Ryan Sutton |
| title | A Labor of Love: The Impact of Union Strength on Democratic Consolidation in Post-Arab Spring Egypt and Tunisia |
| abstract |
Given the widespread concern, both in the region and globally, surrounding democratic consolidation in the wake of the Arab Spring, how and why countries
democratize is a critical topic to understand. This thesis seeks to answer the question: "After the Arab Spring, why did Tunisia successfully transition
to greater democracy, while Egypt experienced a counterrevolution and regressed into an even more autocratic state?" I hypothesize that Tunisia's substantially
higher union strength, evidenced by its history total unionization rate, and foreign influence contributed significantly to its relatively successful democratic
consolidation beginning in 2011. In contrast, Egypt's lack of a strong history of union independence and engagement contributed significantly to the
counterrevolution in July 2013, despite early signs of success in the immediate aftermath of the January 2011 revolution. In order to test my hypothesis,
I adopt a most similar systems model in an effort to isolate union strength as the variable I am examining. The data presented supports my argument.
Ultimately, my findings demonstrate the importance of an independent, robust, and unifying force in civil society, in the form of labor unions, as the
key agent in the rise of democracy in Tunisia, and the lack of such a force in Egypt as the primary cause of its failed revolution. Finally, I argue
that the different experiences of these two countries can serve as a bellwether when looking at other countries in the Middle East and North Africa.
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| school | The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University |
| degree | B.A. (2018) |
| advisor | Catherine Keyser |
| committee | Carlos Yordan
Chris Taylor |
| full text | JRSutton.pdf |
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