From Postcolonial Social Contract to the Arab Uprisings: The Neoliberal Transformation of the State–Society Relations and the Alternative Spaces of the New Political Activism

Year 2023, Volume: 27 Issue: 3, 211 - 216, 15.09.2023

Ferit Belder

https://doi.org/10.5152/JSSI.2022.22291

Abstract

The Arab Uprisings have indelibly impacted the lives of people across the Arab world. Despite
many movements facing major disappointments after more than one decade, the material and
ideational aspects of the uprisings provide a satisfactory analysis of one of the most significant
moments in the history of the region. This article focuses on the political-economic roots of the
Arab Uprisings to see the gradual decline in regime security and the breakdown of the postcolonial social contract. It also takes the remarkable role of information technology in shaping new
political actorness that managed to combine old and new methods of resistance and in broadening the sphere of political interaction without absolute control of the regimes. Within this
context, it is organized as follows. First, it makes sense of the transformation of the state and
the state–society relations within the neoliberal reformulation of politics. Second, it reveals the
politics of the governed to see alternative forms of politics, solidarity, and information networks.
Third, it examines the neoliberal reforms in the Arab world with specific respect to Egypt to see
how the state undertook a structural change that eventually undermined the existing social contract which was at the base of the legitimacy. Lastly, the role of the Internet on the politics of the
governed in times of political-economic crisis of the state is analyzed. It is argued that the neoliberal transformation of state-society relations and the alternative spaces of political activism both
provide a comprehensive outlook to explain the Arab Uprisings.

Keywords

Arab uprisings, legitimacy, neoliberalism, social contract, social media

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