Egypt and the Aftermath of the Arab Spring Research Paper

Beginning in December of 2010 in Tunisia, protests and grassroots political activism spread throughout North Africa and the Middle East. The Arab Spring resulted in regime change in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Bahrain, Libya and Syria. However, the Arab Spring evolved and impacted each nation differently. In Egypt, the Arab Spring began officially on January 25, 2011. Known as the January 25 Revolution, the Arab Spring in Egypt initially resulted in the ousting of Hosni Mubarak. Mubarak had been in power for almost 30 years when he resigned in 2011 and was widely considered to be a “dictator,” (Fantz, 2016: p. 1). As promising as it seemed to transition away from Mubarak’s autocratic regime, the Arab Spring destabilized the nation and resulted in few meaningful changes to Egyptian society, politics, or the media.

Uprisings in Cairo’s Tahrir Square and in other major cities like Alexandria had first been met with harsh crackdowns by the central government. In fact, the government tried to ban public access to the Internet just two days after the protests began. Mobile service providers also agreed to bar access to services that would enable citizens to organize protests (“The January 25 Revolution,” n.d.). First, Mubarak tried to appease the protesters with some weak concessions but ultimately had to capitulate after massive protests on February 2011.

After Mubarak resigned, Egyptian voters initially elected the Islamist Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party. Leader of the Muslim Brotherhood Mohammed Morsi swiftly dismantled institutions that limited his powers as Prime Minister, dissolving the House of Representatives and changing the military's leadership too (“Arab uprising: Country by country – Egypt,” n.d.). The final straw came in November 2012, when only six months after his election Morsi “issued a decree granting himself far-reaching powers” (“Arab uprising: Country by country – Egypt,” n.d.: p. 1). An extension of the original Arab Spring protests that resulted in Mubarak’s resignation, Egyptian citizens took to the streets. Millions of protesters demanded Morsi’s resignation, and the military responded by forcibly deposing the Muslim Brotherhood’s leader.

In 2014, another election ushered in a new leader in Egypt, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. El Sisi won by a landslide but then protests erupted again after the judiciary found Mubarak not guilty of corruption (Fantz, 2016). As a result of the Arab Spring, Egyptians have been “whiplashed from one political extreme to another, from the oppressive government of the Muslim Brotherhood to the military regime that now rules,” (Fantz, 2016: p. 1). Therefore, the Arab Spring has not necessarily resulted in a revitalized Egyptian political culture or civic society.

In addition to the political instability, the results of the Arab Spring on Egyptian society have included high…