The New York Times: “‘What Have We Done with Democracy?’ A Decade On, Arab Spring Gains Wither”

Elsewhere, wars that followed the uprisings have devastated Syria, Libya and Yemen. Autocrats smothered protest in the Gulf. Egyptians elected a president before embracing a military dictatorship.

Still, the revolutions proved that power, traditionally wielded from the top down, could also be driven by a fired-up street.

It was a lesson the Tunisians, who recently flooded the streets again to demonstrate against Parliament and for Mr. Saied, have reaffirmed. This time, however, the people lashed out at democracy, not at an autocrat.

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The people pushing for Parliament, democracy, freedoms, we weren’t the biggest part of the revolution, said Yassine Ayari, an independent Tunisian lawmaker recently imprisoned after he denounced Mr. Saied’s power grab. Maybe a lot of Tunisians didn’t want the revolution. Maybe people just want beer and security. That’s a hard question, a question I don’t want to ask myself, he added.

But I don’t blame the people. We had a chance to show them how democracy could change their lives, and we failed.

The revolution equipped Tunisians with some tools to solve problems, but not the solutions they had expected, Mr. Ayari said. With more needs than governing experience, he said, they had little patience for the time-consuming mess of democracy.

Vivian Yee

I consider the latter quote above a pragmatic point of view that is, unfortunately, often ignored when discussing transition to democracy. While many people may protest in the streets for greater representation and personal freedoms, a silent majority are indifferent to these ideals and prioritize jobs, stability, and economic prosperity.

A Tunis café in September. A decade after their democratic revolution, many Tunisians welcomed it when their president moved against Parliament. Ivor Prickett for The New York Times

Many Western leaders assumed for years that, with growing prosperity, China would soon lean towards a more democratic system – which has evidently not happened, in fact the leadership is tightening its central control. The unrest and dissatisfaction in the United States can also be traced back to increased economic inequality and stagnating standard of living for most of the population. I think it’s safe to say that democracy can more easily establish and thrive in a prosperous economy, but the opposite is much less true; a stable and growing economy may in fact stabilize the political system as well, regardless of whether it is liberal or autocratic.