Would the Arab Spring Have Happened Without the Global Economic Crisis?

Would the Arab Spring have happened without the Global Economic Crisis as a catalyst?

  • Yes

    Votes: 12 80.0%
  • No

    Votes: 3 20.0%

  • Total voters
    15
Would the Arab Spring still have happened starting in 2010 without the economic crisis started in the West not being a catalyst for defiance against long established governments?
 
Well an unemployed Tunisian man would have still committed suicide via self-immolation as a protest against Tunisian police brutality. So yes the spark would still be there.
 

Delta Force

Banned
It's been argued that the Syrian Civil War had a drought as a contributing factor, so that combined with the food price increases of the 2000s could still lead to crisis there.
 
Food prices were the key incentive for the "Arab Spring" protests. High oil prices drove up the cost of plowing and fertilizing land, which drove up the cost of feeding the masses. Remember that poor people spend a much higher percentage of thier income on basic food.
Cell phones, the Internet, political activism were all
Secondary factors driving the Arab Spring.
 
In Egypt before the "Spring", middle class families were struggling to feed themselves. So really it comes down to whether the economic crisis in question includes a spike in food prices as well.

If oil prices still spike the way they did and if the harvest in Australia and Russia were ruined the way they were, even if the economy had been booming in the middle east, I would bet the Spring still happens.

fasquardon
 
Top