ABSTRACT
In recent years, Arab regimes of the Southern Mediterranean have witnessed major mobilizations of citizens on behalf of democratization and political reform. Whereas nearly every Arab autocracy experienced some degree of unrest, only one – Tunisia – obtained true democratization with freer elections and enhanced civil liberties. Remaining regimes either descended into civil war, as in the cases of Libya and Syria, or achieved a higher level of authoritarian robustness, as in Morocco, Algeria, Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf states. This study examines the latter phenomenon, detailing four emerging theoretical approaches that scholars have developed to explain how Arab dictators and monarchs secured regime resilience. In short, the surveyed theories focus on the importance of military loyalty, regime type (monarchism), foreign powers and center-periphery relations. Although these theoretical approaches are not the only ones aiming to explain the robustness of Arab regimes after the uprisings, they are understudied and provide potential opportunities for future research for scholars and students alike.
