7 - Findings and Conclusions

Summary

This final chapter reiterates the book’s explanatory framework and overarching thesis. We have argued for an integrated and holistic explanatory framework that accounts for structural and societal factors and external and internal forces: the state and political institutions, civil society, gender relations and women’s mobilizations, and international influences. Whether or not a region or cluster of countries is prepared to embark on a democratic transition depends on socioeconomic, institutional, and cultural preconditions along with the nature of international connections and interventions. These structures, institutions, and social forces shaped both the possibility for a democratic transition and its trajectory across our seven cases. In particular, we reiterate the significance of the presence or absence of strong women’s rights movements and of international intervention in our seven cases, and we posit that our framework has relevance beyond the Arab Spring cases.