Long before a Tunisian fruit vendor sparked the Arab Spring, student protesters in Paris led a revolt in 1968 that spread to the labor unions and touched off similar protests in London, Berlin, Mexico City, and Rome. The protests took on the pertinent social issues of each city, and it was a turbulent year around the world. Decades later, in the midst of another tumultuous period, university students continue to be a force that sparks and sustains protest culture around the world. The Journal of International Affairs spoke with university students in Ukraine, Turkey, and Venezuela who joined the…
Recent debates on societal transitions to democracy have focused their attention on the notion of "civil society," putting great hope in its democratizing effects. This essay re-examines the notion's utility in the context of the post-2011 Arab Spring uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. It argues that at least in its conceptualization along the lines of the "transition paradigm," the civil society framework is unable to capture the complex catalysts of the non-teleological, open-ended uprisings in North Africa. Not only does it largely ignore the importance of socioeconomic forces a well as the non-institutionalized,…
