Structured Response for Q posted 10/9

               When the Western media reports on the Middle East and North Africa region, they often combine the separate nations into one large, homogenous area that shares the same values, ideologies, and political structures.  Our news sources talk of the Middle East or the Arab World as a land without democracy and freedoms.  While many of the governments of the Middle East do infringe on the rights of minorities, women, or other social groups within their borders, how they respond to the voices of these people differs greatly across the state lines.

                The repressed groups in the Middle East, women, ethnic minorities, and religious minorities being just a few examples, seek out representation and change in their government through social movements.  The members of these groups organize and work towards bettering conditions for themselves in their home countries.  Through voter registration, boycotts, and public displays of civil disobedience and awareness, these social movements are able to gain support for their cause, and become larger causes for concern to their governments.  These movements work within the civil society to change the political system and gain better representation.  Weldon explains civil society as the “arena in which it may be possible to use argument, persuasion, and shame to counter raw coercive power.”  The different political structures of the nations in the MENA region affect how successful the social movements in civil society will be.

                In Lisa Anderson’s writing on comparative politics in the Middle East and North Africa, she explains how the relationships between the people, the ruling body, and the military are what factor into the strength and security of the regime.  She explains that countries such as Turkey, Tunisia, and Egypt are strong because they have a solid bureaucracy and a military that isn’t too involved in it.  It is this factor that allowed for the Arab Spring revolts in the last few years, a perfect example of social movements at work, to become successful.  The military was able to recognize the power of the people and the changes they wanted to make without the lens of the regime, and decided to support them instead of President Mubarak or Ben Ali.  The governments of pre-2003 Iraq, Libya, and Syria, have successfully squandered social movements in their nations.  This is why it required military force to rid Iraq of Hussein and Libya of Qaddafi, and why Syria still experiences internal warfare.  This difference poses the key challenge to social movements in such countries.