Arab Spring, Mohamed Bouazizi, And Equity–Efficiency Tradeoff

Economic sclerosis, anemic growth, and sky-high unemployment are a surefire recipe for social and political explosion, and one such explosion — the Arab Spring — engulfed much of the Middle East and North Africa in recent years. The flames of that explosion are still burning strong and show no signs of dying out anytime soon. From its inception, the Arab Spring was a natural and predictable reaction to the bleak despair and hopelessness that confront millions of youths in the Arab world, from Baghdad to Cairo to Algiers. The self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old Tunisian street vendor fed up with petty harassment by petty local officials, on 17 December 2010 set off widespread nationwide protests that eventually ousted a president who had run the country for 23 years. When the only way a young man can support himself and his family is to sell fruits from a wheel barrow, and small-time bureaucrats with plenty of time on their hands prevent him from doing even that, then the unfortunate actions of Mohamed Bouazizi may be unsurprising. There is no cure for utter hopelessness, bottomless despair, and broken spirits…