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The Arab Spring And Its Aftermath Essay

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The Arab Spring and its aftermath have become one of the most influential events of the twenty-first century. The series of revolutions reshaped several governments within the Middle East by outing long reigning dictators that the people had become progressively frustrated with. The Arab Spring both aligns with and contradicts several previous waves of revolution and is truly a twenty-first century conflict because of the role that modern technology played. Through studying the Arab Spring, political scientists have been given a glimpse into what future revolutions might look like, especially in regards to the expanding role of social media. In order for revolutions to occur, there must be several necessary structural conditions, which were all present during the Arab Spring. First, there must be fiscal strain, which is often caused by demographic changes within the region (Goldstone 2014). Many Middle Eastern countries during the early twenty-first century experienced a youth bulge due to policies encouraging childbirth (Amar and Prashad 2013) . This new wave of young people, especially the young men, were unable to find jobs and the subsequent financial stability (Amar and Prashad 2013). This led to dissatisfaction with the government and frustration that would soon turn into anger once a specific queue, according to relative deprivation theory, ignited the group (Gurr 1970). This queue was in the form of the self-immolation of a fruit seller named Mohamed Bouazizi

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