Contemporary Arab Revolutions: A Comparative Study

The present article intends to explore the reasons for different political outcomes of protests in the Arab world. This study covers six countries of Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Bahrain which have undergone greater political upheavals than other countries in the region. In this article, Goldstone’s theory of revolutions has been used to examine the factors underpinning the failure or success of revolutionary movements in mentioned countries. Accordingly, the hypothesis of the paper is that the different political outcomes of the protests are due to a combination of factors including the political legitimacy of governments, the level of mobilization of anti-regime movements and, the responses of national militaries and international powers. Different configurations of these components in the crisis-stricken countries have led to different political outcomes.