The institutional crises of the first decade of the 21st century, sank the certainties of the previous decade in a sea of questions about what is the appropriate balance between regulation and freedom to achieve social progress and what role the State has to play to guarantee it.
The relationship between Western democracy and the market economy lost its paradigmatic value and doubts about how to better organize a society returned to the forefront of the debates.
People returned to the streets in an innovative way, organizing themselves through the latest internet innovation; “social networks” (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), the new leaders of the web 2.0.
Citizens from different corners of the planet, living under different political regimes and with different levels of economic prosperity unleashed a series of demonstrations that caused significant effects. The so-called “Arab spring” meant – at the beginning of 2011 – the end of several political regimes that ruled the region for decades. In Europe, discomfort and claims caused almost a dozen governments to change hands. And in the United States, protesters took to the streets with their claims to “Occupy Wall Street.”
The protests that took place in North Africa, spreading almost immediately through the Middle East, were rooted in the feelings of a population outraged by the many economic shortcomings they were forced to endure – in a context of an increase of food prices – under political regimes that, for the most part, lacked democratic credentials. People’s claims combined the call for economic improvements with the will to strengthening political rights
It is interesting to note that, even though people form Europe and USA (frequent destination of disgruntled Arabs) had a different economic and political reality, they also demonstrate against policies they felt were able undermined their living conditions or progress opportunities
