المستخلص: |
The study is aimed at exploring the concurrence of two political phenomena in many of the Arab countries which have witnessed public protests calling for freedom and social justice. The first is the shift from comprehensive dictatorships to democratic systems, resulting from the economic and political reform efforts imposed by internal, regional and international changes. The second is political violence, which accelerated to serious levels in some cases in the form of bloody wars and extreme attrition of the strengths of the society and state (e.g. Syria, Libya, Yemen, Iraq). It is concluded that the Arab Spring has uncovered the immense ability of the Arab autocratic regimes to adapt to new situations. They have managed to build cosmetic democracies, which pretend to respond to the external demands and pressures while actually sinking in despotism and corruption. It is also found that the public protests - which constituted a form of reform and democratization - have become a mechanism for some traumatized regimes to stay in power. Thus, questions are raised on how the protests have shifted to the opposite direction to assist the same dominant groups to maintain privileges
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