Structured Response 3

History has revealed that social movements in the MENA region have occurred with varying degrees of success. It seems integral to realize the link between these social movements and the states that they have occurred in across the region in order to understand how these movements can function as an avenue for democratic participation in the region. The clearest way to analyze these relationships is to analyze past social movements and their successes with regard to their relationship to the state.

The two most important factors to understand, according to Lisa Anderson, deal with a state’s “construction” and its “form of bureaucracy.” That is to say: are smaller or larger states more conducive to social reform? Is a strong or weak model of bureaucracy more conducive to social reform? Past social movements reveal that the most successful movements leading to democratic participation have occurred in smaller states with a looser form of bureaucracy. This is most likely because the smaller population allows for more of an ease of communication, and a looser bureaucracy implies that there is a weaker central government and therefore more of an ability to effect positive change. 

On the other hand, there are a few challenges that present themselves when viewing social movements as an avenue for democratic participation in the region. One of these is that one social activist group does not necessarily represent the desires of the entire population. This implies that even if a leader of a social movement group comes into power, that does not necessarily mean that the entire country would be happy with this regime change. There is more of a change for a potential civil war to break out, especially because there is no effective central government to keep different parties under control. Another challenge is that since a lot of social movement groups have diverted from the traditional hierarchy and moved to a more spread out leadership system, there may be difficulty trying to choose one leader to take control of the governing party. This indecision in the new government may lead to anarchy or military control of the state, two things that make the formation of another government more difficult to attain. It will be interesting to see how governments in these post-Arab spring states will form and continue to form in the future.