A comparative study of the position of civil society after the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions

The popular uprisings that started in Tunisia at the end of 2010 and soon spread to several Arab countries caused a huge change in the structure of these countries. Tunisia and Egypt, which were at the center of these protests, said goodbye to the lifetime governments of Zain al-Abidin bin Ali and Hosni Mubarak, and a new path for society and governance was created in these two countries. This research aims to investigate the role of civil society in the post-revolution era in Tunisia and Egypt and tries to answer the question of how to compare the functioning of civil society in these two countries. In this research, descriptive-analytical method and Habermas' theory of civil society were used. The findings of the research show that historically, civil society in both Tunisia and Egypt has had a relative dynamic, however, the roots of civil society in Tunisia are deeper than in Egypt. In the post-revolution era, Tunisian civil society played the role of mediator and resolution of differences between political groups, and in the crises created for Tunisia, this civil society had the necessary cohesion and strength to solve problems. But the civil society in post-revolutionary Egypt became a side of the conflict and by consolidating the rebellion movement, it created a favorable opportunity for a military coup. In addition, unlike Tunisia, civil society was fragmented and incoherent both before and after the 2013 coup.