POLI 340 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, Mohamed Bouazizi, Arab League
Document Summary
Lecture notes north africa, stability to revolution 22/09/2016. Cabinet shuffle, but concessions fail to stem protests, and military refuses to escalate force, saying they were not an instrument of the regime. Initially began with youth, but spread to many disillusioned with administration. Ben ali flees, successor regime suddenly overthrown. Why did tunisia have a revolution: authoritarianism, corruption, economic conditions but there had been protests before, and they hadn"t escalated. Nothing specific in earlier years to explain why things happened this way: preference falsification: can be solved when a signal shows everyone that private beliefs are actually shared by everyone (such as protests/violence) If you perceive the military and regime to be all powerful, less likely to act but if you believe a protest would be successful, it present a different kind of opportunity: role of media. Facebook, mobile phones, al-jazeera, had potential to increase the rapid spread of protests: role of intermediate actors.