Socio-Economic Factors of the Jasmine Revolution
On January 14th, 2011, what has become known as the Jasmine revolution forced Tunisia’s dictator, President Ben Ali to give up power and flee the country. The Jasmine Revolution was driven by the youth in a spontaneous and secular uprising that surprised even specialists. It took only 28 shorts days after Mohamed Bouazizi’s self-immolation to expel the 74 year old president who had remained in power for over 23 years.
The Tunisian uprising created a domino effect known as the “Arab Spring” in which pro-democracy demonstrators began to confront dictators across the Arab world. To better understand the Arab Spring conflicts as a whole, it is important to start with the first case. There were many reasons why citizens took to the streets in protest; the most important being the declining socio-economic conditions. The most critical issues contributing to declining socio-economic conditions were the increase in government corruption, unemployment of the youth and declining living conditions.
Despite early hopes that Ben Ali would liberalize Tunisia after taking over for previous president Bourguiba, Ali built an increasingly authoritarian regime. In 2002, Ben Ali arranged a constitutional referendum to remove the three-term limit to incumbency. With each passing term, Ali’s regime became less in touch with socio-economic and political realities. Ali’s authoritarian regime manifested itself through economic corruption within his extended family. Tunisians had special disdain for Ali’s second wife Leila Trebelsi, who allowed her ten siblings to destroy business throughout Tunisia for personal economic gain. In a period known as plutocracy, the extended family illegally assumed control over a spectrum of enterprises such as airlines, hotels, radio stations, car plants, real estate and more. According to the Central Bank of Tunisia, relatives of Ben Ali and his wife owned at least 180 companies. They acquired these companies by blatantly ignoring laws and in some cases creating new ones that put pressure on specific companies. These actions not only alienated the general public, but also the traditional business class who were forced to sell their business or work for Ben Ali.
The biggest socio-economic issue with government corruption was the fact that Ben Ali’s family were only giving jobs to people connected with the regime. On top of this, the companies were embezzling huge amounts of money while barely paying taxes that funded social programs. There was corruption on a large scale but also on the individual level. Public officials had been harassing and demanding bribes from Mohamed Bouazizi, who owned a food cart which he used to support his seven family members. When Bouazizi refused to pay the police, they upturned his chart and stole his equipment. When he went to the police department to demand a trial, they refused. In response, he set himself on fire in protest, which was the spark for the revolution. His horrific act of self-immolation is representative of the hopelessness many Tunisians felt.
A massive socio-economic issue that ultimately lead to the fall of Ben Ali was the massive unemployment rate among the Tunisian youth. During the 1990’s Tunisia experienced an economic boom. However, during this time the unemployment rate stayed the same. This represents the poor distribution of wealth and the diminishment of the middle class in Tunisia. By 2010, the unemployment rate had risen to 14 percent. For those aged 15 to 24, a large chunk of the youth-predominant population, the unemployment rate exceeded 30 percent. The highly educated were especially effected. More than 45 percent of college graduates could not find work and lived with little hope for a better future. In a developing-world society, to ensure a stable future, it is extremely important to engage the youth in society. The massive unemployment of the Tunisian youth created a strong desire for revolution. Not surprisingly it was the Tunisian youth that took to the streets first in protest, and stayed till the end, long after many of the older demonstrators had been satisfied with Ben Ali’s plea deals.
Hand in hand with unemployment, the declining living conditions contributed immensely to the popular unrest that lead to the Tunisian uprising. One sign of socio-economic stress can be found in rising food costs. In 2008, the average Tunisian household was devoting nearly 36 percent of its domestic budget to the purchase of basic food for home consumption. For the same figure in the United States, households would be spending less than seven percent of their budget. The expensive cost of food made it extremely difficult for Tunisians to live comfortably, especially for the unemployed. Not surprisingly, as food cost had risen, the proportion of Tunisians that viewed themselves as thriving dropped 24 to 14 percent between 2008 and 2010. This means that at least a million Tunisian citizens had seen a reversal in their economic conditions. The atrocious living conditions of the employed highly-educated, created an atmosphere that was ready for social change on a large scale.
The Jasmine Revolution took only 28 days to overthrow the 23-year president Ben Ali in to exile. While the revolution was quick lived, the dissatisfaction with government that had made the protests successful had been brewing for years. The largest contributing factor to the revolution was the decline in socio-economic conditions. Ben Ali’s extended family ravaged the economy by illegally securing quasi-monopoly deals over 180 companies in various industries. The companies paid little taxes and almost always hired regime-tied workers which vastly alienated the public. This was a large contributor to the massive unemployment rate among the youth. The well educated were especially effected and were faced with rising food costs and declining living conditions. The corruption in government lead to high unemployment rates among the youth and declining living conditions which ultimately proved to much to bare for the Tunisian public. The dissatisfaction and anger at the government manifested itself in protests known as the Jasmine Revolution, which overthrew the Tunisian dictator quickly, and initiated a historic Arabic pro-democracy revolutionary movement known as the Arab Spring.