Situating Contemporary Politics into Karl Marx's Theory: An Analysis of Events and Conditions that Led to the Arab Revolutions

Abstract

The Arab region experienced minor to serious revolts from 18 December 2010. This study sought to establish whether the causes of revolutions identified by Karl Marx are consistent with what prevails in contemporary politics. This entails revisiting Karl Marx's ideas and weighing them against what is obtaining in contemporary politics. The researchers first established points identified by Karl Marx as providing fertile grounds for revolutions through analysing his social class theory. From the population of the Arab region, Syria was purposively chosen as a case study. This was due to the fact that its unique geographical location, history, ethnic, religious complexities and recent events provided a wide spectrum for the purposes of this study. The findings show that, indeed, class struggles, class consciousness, alienation, among other things identified by Karl Marx existed in Syria. These are the conditions that Marx identified as prone to trigger revolutionary spirit. In Syria these conditions also created fertile ground for revolts. However, the study in addition established aspects of geopolitics and religious factors that Karl Marx did not foresee in the genealogy of revolutions. The researchers recommend that countries must be wary of these emerging aspects alongside those identified by Karl Marx as causing revolutions.

Keywords: Revolution, Class Struggle, Arab Spring, Geopolitics, Alienation