Undergraduate Module Descriptor

ARA2166: Revolution, Reform or Status Quo

This module descriptor refers to the 2016/7 academic year.

Module Content

Syllabus Plan

Introduction: The persistence of authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa

Tunisia. Ben Ali’s regime and its demise: A facelift or profound change?

Algeria. The bloodshed of the 1990s and the merits of authoritarianism

Morocco. The monarchy as a guarantor of stability: Domestic and international perspectives

Egypt. The 2010 elections and their aftermath: The end of the line for the Mubarak family?

Libya. Qadhafi and the War on Terror: Lessons on how to stay in power

Sudan. The reign of Omar al-Bashir and the secession of the south

Pacts or revolutions? Theories of regime change

Debating the pros and cons of regime change

Essay workshop

Revision

Learning and Teaching

This table provides an overview of how your hours of study for this module are allocated:

Scheduled Learning and Teaching ActivitiesGuided independent studyPlacement / study abroad
221280

...and this table provides a more detailed breakdown of the hours allocated to various study activities:

CategoryHours of study timeDescription
Scheduled Learning and Teaching activity22Teaching will take the form of seminars and brief lectures. Each week's class will begin with student presentations, followed by a seminar organized around the discussion of the theme of the week. The discussion will make reference to the presentations, the texts read at home, the formative reaction paper for the week, and current events, which students are expected to keep up to date with. At the end of each week's class, there will be a short lecture by the module convenor to ensure that all material has been covered fully...
Guided independent study128A variety of independent study activities directed by your module leader

Online Resources

This module has online resources available via ELE (the Exeter Learning Environment).

Other Learning Resources

Students are expected to familiarize themselves with the various libraries.

Indicative Reading List

This reading list is indicative - i.e. it provides an idea of texts that may be useful to you on this module, but it is not considered to be a confirmed or compulsory reading list for this module.

Blaydes, Lisa (2011) Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Boukhars, Anouar (2011) Politics in Morocco: Executive monarchy and enlightened authoritarianism. London: Routledge.

Cavatorta, Francesco and Vincent Durac (2011) Civil Society and Democratization in the Arab World. London: Routledge.

Collins, Robert (2008) A History of Modern Sudan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Hemmer, Jort (2009) Ticking the box: Elections in Sudan. The Hague: Netherlands Institute of International Relations Clingendael. Available online at http://www.nbiz.nl/publications/2009/20090900_paper_cru_hemmer_elections_sudan.pdf.

Kausch, Kristina (2009) Tunisia. The Life of Others. FRIDE Working Paper 85. Available online at http://www.fride.org/descarga/FRIDE-WP85-INGLES.pdf

Kazemi, Farhad and Augustus Richard Norton (1999) ‘Hardliners and Softliners in the Middle East: Problems of Governance and the Prospects for Liberalization in Authoritarian Political Systems,’ in Howard Handelman and Mark Tessler (eds) Democracy and Its Limits: Lessons from Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East. Notre Dame: University of Notre Dame Press, pp. 69-89.

Le Sueur, James (2009) Algeria since 1989: Between terror and democracy. London: Zed Books.

Martinez, Luis (2007) The Libyan Paradox. London: Hurst and Company.

Perkins, Kenneth (2004) A History of Modern Tunisia. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Schmitter, Philippe (2010) ‘Twenty-Five Years, Fifteen Findings,’ Journal of Democracy 21(1), pp. 17-28. Available online at http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_democracy/v021/21.1.schmitter.pdf.

Vandewalle, Dirk (2008) Libya since 1969: Qadhafi’s revolution revisited. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.

(2006) A History of Modern Libya. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.