ABSTRACT
The revolutions, revolts, and protests that occurred in North Africa during 2011 considerably disrupted political arrangements as we had known them. At a minimum they led to the deposition of authoritarian leaders in Tunisia and Egypt, the execution of another in Libya, and the acceleration of constitutional reform in Morocco. The significant exception among these trends was Algeria. In Algeria there were large yet short-lived protests; politics there, however, were not fundamentally disturbed. After these series of revolts and demonstrations all five countries in North Africa held elections during 2011 and 2012. These elections provide indications about whether these societies and states are transitioning towards becoming pluralist democracies. As a result of these elections, one country (Egypt) had Islamist parties win a preponderant majority of the vote and two others (Tunisia and Morocco) had results in which Islamist parties won pluralities rather than majorities; the Islamist parties in Tunisia and Morocco then formed coalition governments with secular parties. Our two remaining countries (Libya and Algeria) had secular parties as victors. Two years after the “Arab Spring” or the “Arab Awakening” where are we in North Africa? What has happened to the authoritarian state? Are we experiencing movements towards greater societal and political pluralism? Or is authoritarianism returning in different, newer forms?
