Democratisation In The Maghreb

Product Description

Compares the political development of four Maghreb countries: Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia & Mauritania The past few years have been a period of unprecedented political upheaval for the Maghreb. A protest which began in a provincial city in one of North Africa's quieter corners quickly engulfed the entire region. Presidents of decades standing were swept from office on waves of public discontent while their counterparts elsewhere nervously tried to calm the mob. In several places these protests are still being played out; in the law courts of Egypt, on the battlefields of Libya, & in the leaking tubs carrying migrants to Europe. & even where the winds of change have died down, the political & social landscape is altered from before. Herein lies a defining paradox of the Arab Spring; its ubiquity & singularity. Nearly all of the region's countries have been affected. But despite making similar demands in largely the same ways over much the same period, their respective protest movements have achieved different results. Drawing on Steven Levitsky & Lucan Way's celebrated model for examining political transitions, this book explains these discrepancies, why Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco & Mauritania have reached different outcomes. It does so by contextualising each country's experiences, by examining & comparing their political development over the past decade. Key features Systematically uses Levitsky's & Way's model to interrogate Morocco's, Algeria's, Tunisia's & Mauritania's recent political development The inclusion of Mauritania is a valuable adidition rarely seen in the literature Considers, but does not focus solely on the Arab Spring, charting the years preceding & proceeding it