The Rupture of Revolutionary Coalition After Color Revolution: The Semi-Negative Case Comparison of Egypt and Tunisia

Abstract

The formation of revolutionary coalition is the key to the success of colour revolutions. However, the regime overthrown by the coalition is always followed by the dissolution of such revolutionary coalition, and some members of the coalition will provoke violent internecine. The article addresses the root cause of the violent rupture of revolutionary coalition after the colour revolution. The authors argue that the revolutionary coalition collapses because some members decide to borrow arms to defeat their competitors in the coalition. Since the only member possessing such violent tools in the colour revolutions tend to be the military of former regime who sides with revolutionary movement, it is the unbalanced relationship between the military and political members in the coalition that will lead to the rupture of the coalition. When there is a balanced relationship between the two parties, the military will remain neutral among different political members when facing the political competition, and such coalition can avoid the violent rupture. While the relationship is unbalanced, the military will be intertwined in the political competition, leading to the rupture. The article adopts an innovative research method of semi-negative comparison to study two cases of Egypt and Tunisia from Arab Spring.