Testability of Social Revolution Theory in Egyptian and Tunisian Revolutions

Over the last few years, some great developments have taken place in the Arab world and the aftershocks remain to entice the attention of many revolutionary scholars and analysts. Structuralist theories are among the most significant approaches of scholars in explaining revolutions. Among these theories, social revolution theory is the most famous example of the third generation of revolutionary theories which have been introduced "States and Social Revolutions" by Skocpol. But according to what Skocpol acknowledges, her theory is incapable of explaining the Iranian revolution. The question that arises is, therefore, whether or not Skocpol should change her theory about Iran alone, and her theory has the potential to explain other revolutions in the Muslim world. The purpose of the paper is therefore to "compare the revolutions of Egypt and Tunisia" according to the theory of social revolution. The main question in this article is whether social revolution theory can explain the revolutions of Egypt and Tunisia. The hypothesis of the article is that the theory of social revolution not only has not the ability to explain the Iranian revolution, but it cannot also explain other revolutions in the Islamic world.