Tracking the “Arab Spring”: Why the Modest Harvest?

Issue Date October 2013
Volume 24
Issue 4
Page Numbers 29-44
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Popular uprisings have occurred only in some Arab states and in even fewer have authoritarian rulers been overthrown. What factors allow us to predict whether an authoritarian regime will be vulnerable?

About the Authors

Jason Brownlee

Jason Brownlee is professor of government at the University of Texas, Austin, and the author of Authoritarianism in an Age of Democratization (2007).

View all work by Jason Brownlee

Tarek Masoud

Tarek Masoud is the Journal of Democracy’s coeditor and the Ford Foundation Professor of Democracy and Governance at Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government.

View all work by Tarek Masoud

Andrew Reynolds

Andrew Reynolds is the author of The Children of Harvey Milk: How LGBTQ Politicians Changed the World (2018).

View all work by Andrew Reynolds

Further Reading

Volume 26, Issue 4

After the Arab Spring: Are Secular Parties the Answer?

A close look at secular parties in the Middle East today raises doubts about whether they are ready for prime time.

Volume 23, Issue 4

New Findings on Arabs and Democracy

The second wave of the Arab Barometer reveals strong and steady support for democracy in the Arab World but a deficit in democratic culture.

Volume 24, Issue 3

Bahrain’s Decade of Discontent

When this small island kingdom in the Gulf joined the wider Arab world’s political upheavals in March 2011, it was a reaction to regional events, but also a reflection of…