Arab Spring: The Genesis, Effects and Lessons for the Economies of the Third World

Abstract

On December 17, 2010, a 26-year-old university graduate, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself ablaze outside the police provincial headquarters in Sidi Bouzid (Tunisia); this act of self-emollition was in protest over the confiscation of the cart and wares that constituted his means of livelihood as a food vendor. Bouazizi had resorted to vending as a vocation following unsuccessful search for employment with his degree; on January 4, 2011, he died of complications from his burns. The public outrage generated by Bouazizi‟s one-man protest precipitated wild protests in his native Sidi Bouzid, which became the starting point of a socioeconomic, political and constitutional revolution, first by extending to other cities in Tunisia and, by the end of the first quarter of 2011, spreading to several countries in North Africa and the Middle East; that phenomenon became known as Arab Spring. As reflected in the title, this paper seeks to piece together, in one journal article, the genesis, causes, global effects and lessons learnable by leaders across the world especially the leaders and citizens of the developing economies of the Third World.