Bound Volume Number

4

Degree Type

Honors Capstone Project

Date of Submission

Spring 5-1-2015

Capstone Advisor

Hossein Bashiriyeh, Professor of Political Science

Honors Reader

Christopher Ferrero, PHD

Capstone Major

International Relations

Capstone College

Arts and Science

Audio/Visual Component

no

Keywords

Machiavelli, Arab Spring, Norocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Syria, revolution

Capstone Prize Winner

no

Won Capstone Funding

no

Honors Categories

Social Sciences

Subject Categories

International Relations | Near and Middle Eastern Studies

Abstract

This study sets out to examine if Machiavellian, realpolitik, style repression of unrest by autocratic regimes is still a viable tactic. To accomplish this, the Arab Spring revolutions in Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, and Syria will be used as a case study. As the revolts were for similar economic and political reasons in a similar population, they present excellent case studies. The Prince itself will be used to develop a “Machiavellian regime,” encompassing a summary of Machiavelli’s prescriptions for rulers. This is done to avoid propagating clichéd or incorrect generalizations of Machiavelli’s work. The result of the study was not kind to dictators, as could be imagined. Globalized media has struck a blow to their stability in two ways: first by providing malcontents a way to interact with otherwise pacified citizens, and second by publicizing news of brutality and crackdowns, thus making hatred for the ruler.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

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