Economic and Social Rights and the Arab Spring: Popular Mobilization in Tunisia

• In Event: Survey Research in the Middle East and North Africa

Abstract

“Work, freedom, and national dignity” (“shughl, huriyya, karama wataniyya”) served as one of the early rallying cries Tunisia’s Jasmine Revolution. Other slogans, calling upon the “scruffy Trabelsis [to] spare some bread for the poor” (ya Trabelsiya haqir, khelli il-khubza lilfaqir), reflected concerns about food security. Despite this, however, the precise links between socio-economic grievances and political mobilization remain unclear. In a groundbreaking study, Beissinger, Jamal, and Mazur (2015) found that “demands for improving the economic situation” were more significant to Tunisian citizens than “demands for civil and political freedom” in encouraging them to mobilize in the streets. This study has opened the door to unpacking exactly which economic demands are more likely relative to others to encourage mass mobilization, and why. In this paper, we build off this study to examine the relative importance of four different types of economic insecurity in encouraging popular mobilization: food insecurity, insufficient health care, unemployment, and access to education. We do this through an original survey conducted in Tunisia in summer 2017. Its findings help us break open the black box of concerns over "economic justice" to understand which economic grievances and economic rights violations matter most in encouraging popular mobilization.

Authors

• Dina Bishara, Cornell University

• Michelle Jurkovich, University of Massachusetts Boston

• Chantal Berman, Princeton University