The Bread Revolutions of 2011: Teaching Political Economies of the Middle East

Whether it was bread-wielding Tunisians, marching Suez workers, or Yemeni protestors chanting against corruption, the 2011 Arab uprisings put political economy issues front and center. Indeed, a critical thread throughout the region’s uprisings has been the simple question: “where has the money gone?” And though the field of political economy is multifaceted, the basic refrain “follow the money” unites most of it. Having students engage and debate political economy issues helps counteract much of the popular media’s fixation on violence, terrorism, and sectarianism that too often exclusively frames how Americans understand the Middle East. Political economy gets at some of the most important (but certainly not all ) factors and dynamics that define social and political life in the Middle East. A political economy approach also reinforces the critical disposition and tools of inquiry to instill in university undergraduates. In particular, the approach stresses to students that the realms of the economy and the political are hardly distinct, and therefore amore complete explanation for the events of 2011, and after, require grasping that interaction (Lindblom 1982; Polanyi 2001). Because many of my students come from rust belt cities like Cleveland, Ohio, Detroit, Michigan, and Youngstown, Ohio, having themmake the connection between politics and money is not difficult. Front-cover stories of Americans’ disgust at the banking sector or Europeans protesting austerity, also help to place the Arab grievances of 2011 in a broader context. Today, the 99% can be found in many places. That broader context can help expand what constitutes “the economic” so that students appreciate the social, political, and cultural settings in which trucking and bartering takes place. Thus, the millions of Arab citizens who took to the streets in 2011 did so in defiance not only of a history of economic stagnation, inequality, and corruption but did so in the face of consistent political despotism and social divisions. To be sure however, political economy considerations can be only part of a more complex understanding of 2011. This article suggests two general political economy themes to sharpen our lens on the paths to 2011 and dynamics after: the politics of economic development/reformand resource politics. Tracing the politics of economic development and the last decades of economic reform in the Middle East, challenges students to think beyond an abstract world divided between politics and economics. Exploring resource, or rentier, politics presents studentswith a parsimonious debatewith broad methodological implications. Underlying these issues are concerns about the accuracy of the macro economic data produced by governments in the region and indeed throughout the developing world. Experimenting with ways around uneven and missing macro economic data by exposing students to multiple methods of inquiry broadens classroom engagement with one of the most diverse regions of world.