Explanatory Study of Huntington’s Revolution Theory in Revolution of Tunisia (A New Analysis of the Historical Origin of 2011 Evolutions)

Abstract

After four decades of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, the analysis of the causes of the emergence of this revolution and its comparison with the major and recent revolutions in the Islamic world is one of the major issues in the academic field. Among the various theories that have addressed revolutionary analysis, Huntington’s theory of unbalanced development is of secondary importance because of the popularity of research and the focus on political institutions and its role in social and economic transformations. Many researchers disagree about whether Samuel Huntington's theory of uneven development is capable of explaining the Iranian revolution. This theory is still in the debate. This issue has also been measured in the Tunisian revolutionary developments in 2011. This article tries to assess the ability of the two countries to balance the theory of balanced development with the alignment of the Iranian Revolution of 1979 and 2011 in Tunisia. The author believes that the political development was a factor in the crisis in both Iran and Tunisia, but it is not a major cause of the Iranian revolution and is more in line with the Tunisian Revolution. Nevertheless, the present article will show that the theory of unbalanced development with its constraints only explains part of the causes and factors of the Iranian revolution and is more consistent with the Tunisian revolution. The need to political participation was the basic cause for Tunisian revolution, and in regard with the social and economic development, the status quo in Tunisia hindered the fair distribution and execution of laws, leading to social inequality. In other words, the economic problem in Tunisia had not its roots in economic non-development; rather, it was the result of the social disrupt, corruption, and the economic dominance of Bin Ali and his dynasty over Tunisia.

Keywords

• revolution
• huntington's theory
• islamic world
• social disrupt
• tunisia