New forms of democratic citizenship in the Middle East and North Africa: an alternative approach for the EU and the United States. Euspring Working Paper No. 3 July 2016
The Arab Spring and its truncated aftermath raise many important questions about political reform.
Citizenship and rights, in particular, form an important area of concern in light of the obstacles to
wholesale democratization and to the reform of formal institutional structures in the Middle East and
North Africa (MENA). As most regimes have pushed back strongly against societal pressure for
political opening, many reformers hope that active citizenship can compensate for the lack of progress
in other areas. One of the few enduring legacies of the flowering of democratic activism in 2011 is
citizens’ search for more active involvement in decisions that affect their day-to-day lives — even as
the prospect of democratization has receded in most states. This has engendered much debate over
how citizens across the region understand rights — and whether they seek a concept of citizenship
that is distinct to the region
