Bachelor
2021/2022
After the Arab Spring: Democratic Aspirations and State Failure
Type:
Elective course (Asian and African Studies)
Area of studies:
Asian and African Studies
Delivered by:
School of Asian Studies
When:
5 year, 1 module
Mode of studies:
distance learning
Online hours:
24
Open to:
everyone
Instructors:
Andrey Zeltyn
Language:
English
ECTS credits:
4
Contact hours:
4
Course Syllabus
Abstract
After the Arab Spring – Democratic Aspirations and State Failure is an online course available on platform Coursera https://www.coursera.org/learn/after-the-arab-spring. Learn why the hope and excitement of the Arab Spring is gone, why so many Arab states are falling apart, why the youth are so frustrated, why there are so many refugees, and what can be done about it. The so-called Arab Spring appeared to end decades of exceptionalism and bring the Arab world back into the mainstream of global developments. The rebellions promised the return of politics and the reassertion of popular sovereignty against their corrupt and geriatric leaders. Much hope and flowery language greeted the young men and women who deposed their leaders and tried to build new, better societies. Today, the Arab world is in deep crisis. Of the 22 member states of the Arab League, at least five have essentially collapsed: Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Syria exist only in name today, as their territories have fallen to competing, murderous armed groups. In the remaining countries, the old autocracies have reasserted themselves. The repression at home is now worsened by regional conflict on an unprecedented scale, and the resulting frustration has led to the biggest refugee flows in recent memory. What went wrong? This course offers an overview of the structural shortcomings of Arab states and societies, which help us understand why the democratic awakening did not happen but instead “has given way to civil wars, ethnic, sectarian and regional divisions and the reassertion of absolutism.” This raises the obvious and renewed question whether there is something inherent in the Arab, and by analogy Muslim, condition that makes them special. Does this condition make this part of the world impervious to generally observable trends towards greater accountability, popular participation in political decision-making, greater generation and fairer division of economic wealth? Join this course to find out!
Learning Objectives
- To know the theoretic base for the development of the Arab societies and the tendencies of their future development as well as the mechanisms of beginning and developing of regional conflicts. To adequately use the instruments of formulating clear objectives and choosing effective means of their solving at the base of the data analysis and other methods.
Expected Learning Outcomes
- Analyses Human Development: Growth and Frustration
- Analyses the Instability and Institutional Failure.
- Demonstrates Outlook: Elusive Stability
- Explains Economics: Bread, Dignity and Freedom
- Gets acquainted to Governance.
- Operates knowledge about Institutions.
Course Contents
- Introduction
- Theme 1. Instability and Institutional Failure
- Theme 2. Governance
- Theme 3. Institutions
- Theme 4. Economics: Bread, Dignity and Freedom
- Theme 5. Human Development: Growth and Frustration
- Theme 6. Outlook: Elusive Stability
- final lesson
Interim Assessment
- 2021/2022 1st module0.165 * Test 3 + 0.165 * Test 4 + 0.17 * Test 2 + 0.17 * Test 1 + 0.165 * Test 5 + 0.165 * Test 6
Bibliography
Recommended Core Bibliography
- Axel Bruns, Tim Highfield, & Jean Burgess. (n.d.). The Arab Spring and Social Media Audiences English and Arabic Twitter Users and Their Networks. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.36C5BCEF
- Bevir, M., Rhodes, R., & Weller, P. M. (2015). Traditions of Governance: Interpreting the Changing Role of the Public Sector. Retrieved from http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=edsbas&AN=edsbas.30CFD5C3
Recommended Additional Bibliography
- Alisa Shishkina, & Leonid Issaev. (2017). From Fitnah to Thaura: The Metamorphosis of the Arab-Muslim Protest Movements. Religions, (9), 193. https://doi.org/10.3390/rel8090193