ABSTRACT
On December 17, 2010, Muhammad Bouazizi set himself on fire in front of the local government building in the Tunisian town of Sidi Bou Zid. Less than a month after Bouazizi's desperate act, military and political leaders saw the writing on the wall, and after the army surrounded the presidential palace, President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali stepped down and fled to Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia and Morocco, kings who had presented themselves as "reformers" faced their own protest movements, which demanded expanded representation, an end to corruption, and constitutional checks on monarchic power. There are two metaphors commonly used to describe what has happened in the Arab world since December 2010. The first and most commonly used metaphor is "Arab Spring." The second metaphor commonly used to describe what has been happening in the Arab world since Bouazizi's death is "wave.".
