Actors in Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution: Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) Assignment #2: Silke Groeneweg Introduction to International Development 1. What type of actor is this? What characteristics helped you identify what type of actor your actor is? (2-3 sentences) The Democratic Constitutional Rally (RCD) was the ruling party in Tunisia from its independence from France in 1956 until its overthrow and subsequent dissolution following Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution in 2011. The RCD is very clearly a state actor, given their standing as a political party and the way in which it and Ben Ali exercised power over branches of government to control the lives of the people of Tunisia. Prior to the revolution, Tunisia was very much a one-party system, where the RCD had the majority of the seats (as much as 161 of the 217 seats in the legislature) (Murphy, 2011, p 299) which gave them almost absolute power in the legislature. 2. What did your actor do in Tunisia’s revolution, if anything? (4-6 sentences) The RCD was an important actor during the Tunisian revolution. At the beginning of the …show more content…
States are such powerful actors because in most cases, they can control a significant amount of the day to day of its citizens. Two common methods states use to control the status quo include suppression of revolutions through the use of force including the mobilization of police and the armed forces. This can be a significant influencer in maintaining the status quo as many individuals fear a potentially violent reprisal from the state should its citizens stage a protest or revolution. Another method states use to maintain the status quo is cronyism and nepotism used by officials within that state. Officials within states often have the power to give influential roles to their friends, families, and individuals that could be beneficial to their
How do people in power influence society ?To influence means to have an affect on character,development, or behavior of someone or something. People in position of power use Rhetorical techniques in the process in trying to influence their audience. Sharing their opinion about a situation can affect a person in different ways ,by the person in power appealing to logic and emotions. Affects an individual’s character and also can have an large impact emotionally,mentally, and physically. Using these tools really all to persuade a person to feel what their feeling and see their side. It could be to help a person or shape an individual in astonishing way.
Democracy is often defined as a system of government by the whole population or all the eligible members of a state through elected representatives, yet its deeper meaning goes far beyond its definition. It is a deceivingly broad term used to describe an imperfect system run by imperfect people where it is often hard to discern what is right and what is wrong. The intricacies of democracy are what make it a system that is both magnificent and vexing, which is evident in the French Revolution, A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens, and the country of Venezuela. More specifically, democracy is so difficult because its participants have the freedom to practice extremism, the privilege to hold on to their principles regardless of negative impacts, and the right to assembly, a gateway to mob behaviour.
On December 17, 2010, a young Tunisian street vendor protesting an abusive police official set off a wave of democratic uprisings throughout the Arab world. In contrast with externally imposed regime changes in Afghanistan and Iraq, the long-suffering Arab peoples took it on themselves to drive their former rulers from power and called for a new basis of governance in a region long dominated by dictators. While the outcomes of these political transitions are still very much in question, they highlighted the importance of popular revolt in bringing about democratic change.
In our society today certain groups of people hold power over others. Some times this can be a good thing and sometimes it can be a bad thing. The good ways are that powerful people like in the government keep the peace and maintain order by controlling
From Mubarak’s term lasting 29 years, elections in Egypt are pseudo-democratic. He and his party maintain their power by force but rationalize their rule with pseudo-democratic arguments. In the years 2005 and 2008, elections were held, but the party often nominated or approved only one candidate. In 80% of the contests, the NDP’s candidates ran unopposed. Moreover, the regime had cracked down hard on his opponents, so that it was difficult to register or campaign; this lack of opposition led to a low voter turnout which was estimated at only 3%. Nour experienced to evidence Mubarak’s political intimidation. He took part in the elections and strongly condemned Mubarak’s pseudo-democratic government; Mubarak created trumped-up charges against Nour so that his
A revolution occurs when the basic needs of the people are not being met and it is caused by political conflict, economic hardships, and social endeavors. The Arab Spring, a democratic uprising, arose across the Arab world starting in 2010. The contemporary event of the Arab Spring and the historic French Revolution in the late 1700s share similarities. The Arab Spring started out in late 2010 in Tunisia when a street vendor named Mohamed Bouazizi committed suicide because of treatment from local officials. This catastrophe lit a fuse across the Arab nation.1 The French revolution broke out in 1789 when the corrupt King Louis XVI needed money and the financial crisis drove him to convene the estates general to create a new tax. These two revolutions
AIPA 2: UNDERSTANDING ACTORS, INTERESTS & POWER Institutions Basic level – states exist to provide (1) defence and (2) social order this requires the presence of a functioning economy. State not only produces, consumes and redistributes; it’s also the main source and enforcer of “rules of games”. “Rules of games” are institutions institutional quality is related to economic performance. Evidence: No country has gotten rich with bad institutions. Politics Politics is the process of creating new institutions. Existing institutions create a constraint on this process. Political processes can be analysed in terms of Actors involved in the processes, their interests and their relative power (AIP). Actors: Political,
Usually throughout the world, tensions can take years to produce any serious actions, but this was not the case following the Arab Spring. In Egypt, this boiling tension only increased during 2012 with a parliamentary election around the corner; Mohamed Morsi of the Freedom and Justice Party of Egypt won presidency that summer, but just one year later was violently removed via a military coup endorsed by Nour (as known as the Party of Light) and led to the deaths of many of the FJP’s supporters and the imprisonment of many of its members (Kurzman and Kürkoğlu 103). And even after coup, many revolutionary Islamic groups have derided Islamic political parties for following and being a part of democratic processes due to the lack of jihad, even going so far as to attack and kill Islamic leaders who are supportive of democracy (103-104). This violent behaviour speaks ill of what could happen under a heavily conservative Islamic government, especially considering how damaging autocracies and non-liberal democracies can be even outside of major areas such as human rights, women’s rights, minority rights, religious rights, and the many manner of freedoms liberal democracies
In order to protect their rights and the goals of the revolution, and never back to the dark ages. So the core demand of the French revolution, which created in the 18 century, it still use until now. If we compare the core demands of the Arab spring in its infancy, " Bread, freedom, and Social justice " we can't see a different between the French core demand and the Egyptians core demands during both revolution, and the actions its more closed it this situation, because the main struggle faced the peoples from the two different counters, it's the bad economy cause. Which lead the people to look out of their bread and start thinking more social, mean they prefer to think more about the community interest more than the individual interest. The loyal system in France before the revolution it's no different than Mubarak regime, because of the similarity of tools of repression, and these tools the main roles of the people actions to refused all these tools, and starts their struggle. This example confirmation the the similarities between the revolutionaries people and the oppressores systems during the history, which mean the core demands of the french revolution still remains to these
This revolution can be deemed a failure on multiple streams of thought ranging from economic to political. To structurally analyze the extent of this man made failure lets logically sort out the key events of the uprising. It all commemorated with a jury of self obsessed egotistic individuals who ruled. In January 2012 Ben Ali the political ruler of Tunisia gave in to the public’s demands and fled the country. This key event sparked hope in the minds of people with the message that toppling the Arab regime is not an impossible task. And this is where most of the problems began.
Power in politics is a person who has the ability to influence a person in terms of their behaviour; however they possess no right to - unlike authority. There are many ways in which a person can influence another’s behaviour; one such example is through coercion. Coercion refers to the use of violence or threats in order to influence someone. [Jones and Norton, 2011]
Question 4.) Although literary critics have tended to praise the unique and litereray characterization many authors have employed the sterotype characters successfully. Select a novel or play and analyze how a conventional or stereotype character function to achieve the authors purposes.
“Who lost Tunisia?” This question may well haunt future European leaders. As Hervé Morin, a former French defense minister, recently warned, Europe — and France in particular — cannot afford to wait until the black flag of the Islamic State is hoisted above the presidential palace in Tunis.
What these people hold is power, plain and simple. Perhaps their power comes in the form of real tangible power when we speak of the politicians. Or maybe, it simply stems, more passively, from the power to influence the masses through digital avenues via twitter or Facebook accounts. In some cases it may come in a complicate mix of the two, but, regardless of their specific capabilities, make no mistake, these people exist separate from us, above us. In a sort of ironic twist the average person has unwittingly gone and turned their own life into some pathetic sort of
This week’s readings investigate the rise of Islamic opposition and civic society groups in Egypt, Turkey, and Algeria. In an overarching perspective, the readings contend that the failure of the post-colonial states in providing the public goods and services they were responsible for, as well as their use of Islamist groups in order to crush the leftist opposition, provided political structures of opportunity that the Islamic groups were able to exploit. In addition, the state hostility to civic society Islamic opposition groups, gave rise to militant Islamic groups in some cases. The following paragraphs will provide evidence from the texts to support the above assertions.