The Arab Uprisings and the Prospects for Building Shared Societies

Abstract

The uprisings in the Arab world were driven by various forms of exclusion that have driven multiple groups to mobilize against long-standing authoritarian regimes. However, once in place these uprisings have followed different trajectories and have led to different outcomes. While structural conditions are important, elite decisions and external variables also help explain successful consensus building in Tunisia and Yemen, the resurgence of authoritarianism in Egypt and state breakdown in Libya and in Syria.