Revolutionary, stagnant or chaotic? Societies of selected Arab states four years
after the Arab Spring. The Spring of 2011 in the Arab world and its blooming
revolutions were hopeful and precious. The whole world watched as angry masses
of young Arabs toppled the regimes, ousting first Tunisia’s Zine El Abedine Ben Ali
and then Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak. By the end of the year, with the help of American
jetfighters, another bloody dictator was gone – Muamar Kaddafi no longer endangered
the people of Libya. Social change was on the way – freedom of speech and
freedom to vote were only among other prerogatives of the young civil societies.
In 2012 all of those states had new governments and presidents. But something
started to go wrong – in democratic elections islamists took over, not only destabilizing
the countries, but fermenting newly born civil societies. In 2014, when the
old power is back in Egypt, opposition leaders are being killed in Tunisia and Libya
indicated sharia law, the world watches how “the class of 2011” – educated young
Arabs that started the revolutions of 2011, will handle the changes. The article
analyses changes observed within Arab societies in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya from
December 2010 till December 2013. Analyses is based on „Time” magazine articles
written about the Arab Spring Countries in the above dates.