Analyzing Revolutionary Movements in the Classroom

Author

By Joan Brodsky Schur, Village Community School

Whatever the future holds for Tunisia, the Jasmine Revolution will go down in history as the first blossom of the Arab Spring – a series of revolutionary uprisings that spread from tiny Tunisia, to giant Egypt and far beyond. ​

In Tunisia the Jasmine Revolution (so dubbed by the Western press) is known as the Sidi Bouzid Revolt, named after the hometown of Mohamed Bouazizi, the street vendor who immolated himself to protest his thwarted dreams of making even a meager living in Tunisia. Today the news media are focused on the bigger stories of Egypt, Libya and Syria, making if difficult to get updated information about Tunisia, “the little engine that could.”  But Tunisia is still far from completing its revolution, and what happens down the line will determine whether historians will call the Jasmine Revolution a true revolution or not.

Having spent two weeks in Tunisia in the summer of 2010 on a GEEO educator’s tour of Tunisia, I was surprised that this seemingly calm country erupted in a massive protest movement just months after we left.  What had our group missed about what we experienced there?  In our perplexity we were apparently not alone; most news commentators were also surprised.  Yet in retrospect, the signs that Tunisia could harbor a revolutionary movement were there.

European thinkers laid the theoretical framework for studying revolutions primarily in response to the French Revolution.  It was Alexis de Tocqueville who first observed that people exhibited the most revolutionary fervor in regions of France where the quality of life was rising--not falling, as might be expected. Regarding the Jasmine Revolution, Fatma Bouvet de la Maisonneuve commented, “It’s no coincidence that the revolution first started in Tunisia, where we have a high level of education, a sizeable middle class and a greater degree of gender equality” (New York Times of February 22, 2011).  Thus it was Tunisians--primed for a better life, but thwarted by their lack of political rights and economic prospects, and aware of their “relative deprivation” vis-à-vis the Europeans who flock to Tunisia’s beautiful Mediterranean coastline--who spearheaded the Arab spring.

​The following lesson plan takes the definition of revolution as its starting point, and then asks the question:  When can we decide whether or not the Sidi Bouzid revolt led to a successful revolution? By engaging students in ongoing assessments of unfolding events, they must not only “stay tuned” to what happens, but also make critical judgments about their meaning.

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DIRECTIONS:

Distribute to the class or project the following two quotations:

​“Revolutions entail not only mass mobilization and regime change, but also more or less rapid and fundamental social, economic and/or cultural change, during or soon after the struggle for state power.”

-Jeff Goodwin in No Other Way Out: States and Revolutionary Movements 1945-1991.

“Few revolutionary situations have revolutionary outcomes.”
​
-Charles Tilly in European Revolutions 1492- 1992.

Tell students that the purpose of the lesson is for them to determine whether or not Tunisia has achieved a successful revolution, using the definition of sociologist Jeff Goodwin, or other definitions they research.

1. Distribute the Timeline of the Jasmine Revolution.  Tell students that as the school year continues they will be expected to follow the news coming out of Tunisia, to add events to the timeline, and to evaluate whether Tunisia is moving away from or closer to achieving a revolutionary outcome.
   
   [You can also ask students to research events before the Jasmine Revolution in order to answer the question:  Why was Tunisia the first Arab country to try to overthrow its government?]
   
   
2. Distribute the following list of political science terms. Elicit from the class the definitions they already know; assign students to look up the others until the class has a working definition of each of them.​​

Define the term	Find example from world history	Explain why the term does or does not apply to Tunisia
protest
revolt
non-violent resistance
coup d’etat
putsch
civil war
revolutionary wave
abortive revolution
stolen revolution
revolutionary outcome

4. Ask students working alone, or in small groups, to use the Jasmine Revolution Timeline and their list of terms to fill in the chart.  Share results and hold an open discussion to try to reach consensus on how these terms apply or do not apply to Tunisia.

5. As events unfold, ask students to update the timelines as well as their charts.  For example, six months from now we might find that Tunisia’s revolution was aborted, stolen, or completed

extension activities

1. Ibn Khaldun, the great Tunisian historian of the fourteenth century, hypothesizes about why leaders lose power.  Apply the theories he formulated in The Muqaddimah to current-day Tunisia.
2. Compare the Jasmine Revolution to events unfolding in another Arab country, or European revolutionary movements that failed or succeeded.
3. Compare the Arab Spring to the revolutionary ferment that swept through Europe in 1848.

1956	Tunisia becomes an independent state and wins recognition by France (its former colonizer) as such.
1957	Tunisia becomes a republic.  The monarchy is abolished and President Habib Borguiba establishes a secular state, abolishing polygamy and giving women the vote.
1987	Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali comes to power as successor of Habib Bourguiba, the founder of modern Tunisia. Note: Students can add to this timeline events from 1956 to 2010 and then hypothesize why the Arab Spring began in Tunisia.
2010	WikiLeaks releases documents that expose the extravagant lifestyle of President Ben Ali. The worldwide economic slump exacerbates Tunisia’s already high rate of unemployment, especially among its populous, well-trained and educated youth.
Dec. 17, 2010	Mohamed Bouazizi, a street vendor from Sidi Bouzid, immolates himself to protest a life made futile by a lack of jobs in Tunisia and the harassment of street vendors by government officials.
Dec. 2010- Jan. 2011	Facebook and Twitter are used by educated Tunisians to organize massive and continuing demonstrations against the Ben Ali government and his family, which they believe is enriching itself at the expense of Tunisians. Demonstrations are held in major cities throughout the country. The Tunisian military holds its fire, protecting demonstrators from the Ben Ali police and security forces.
Jan. 12, 2011	Ben Ali says that he will remove restrictions on the press and that he will resign at the end of his term in 2014.  Protests continue, after which Ben Ali announces that he will hold elections in six months.  The protestors, which include lawyers and trade unionists, do not give up; at least 78 Tunisians die.
Jan. 14, 2011	President Ben Ali leaves Tunisia after a twenty-three year dictatorship. Some Tunisians begin to flee for Italy and Libya, fearing that their country has fallen into a state of anarchy.
Jan. 15, 2011	Fouad Mebazaa becomes interim president. According to the old constitution this position can only be maintained for six months.
Feb. 27, 2011	Mohamed Gannouchi, prime minister for 11 years under Ben Ali, resigns.  Having tried to form a unity government, he is forced out by protestors who insist that he is too closely allied with the former government of Ben Ali and his party, the RCD (Constitutional Democratic Rally).
March 3, 2011	Fouad Mebazaa announces that elections will be held on July 24 for members of a council of representatives empowered to rewrite the Tunisian constitution. According to Reuters, “Once elected the constitutional council could either appoint a new government or ask the current executive to carry on until presidential or parliamentary elections are held.” Mebazaa announces that he plans to remain in power beyond the six-month period stipulated in the old constitution because the former government is no longer relevant.  General elections are postponed.
March 7, 2011	The interim government announces plans to disband the secret police, the terror weapon of Ben Ali’s rule.
March 9, 2011	The party of the Ben Ali government, the RCD, is officially dissolved.
Ongoing 2011––	Debate is unresolved as to whether the Tunisian government should empower the private sector and put in place laissez-faire market reforms, or to the contrary empower the state to intervene more in the economy.  Methods to fight corruption and to establish judicial and administrative reforms are not yet in place.  The role of Islam in formerly secular Tunisia is yet to be decided.
	Note: This timeline should be extended as students research further developments.