Conference Paper
The Social Contract and Collective Action: Grievances, Cleavages, and Protests in Tunisia and Lebanon
No.
ERF_31_PE71
Publisher
ERF
Date
March, 2025
Topic
P. Economic Systems
The article examines how citizens’ expectations in social contracts lead them to take to the streets for contentious collective action. It draws on original, nationally representative telephone surveys in Tunisia and Lebanon that we commissioned in late 2020 and unpacks popular preferences about the social contract and states’ obligations to deliver social service provision, protection, and political participation. We measure empirically whether participation in protest can be explained predominantly by people’s grievances with their states’ social contract obligations or the position of people in society. Findings reveal intriguing differences between the two countries, but also among social groups within societies. We find that socially privileged people are more likely to take to the streets in pursuit of their demands, lending support to theories that identify society’s middle classes as drivers of protest action. We believe that the article’s findings will have significant implications for studies of contentious state society relations in the MENA region and beyond.
Authors
Markus Loewe
Research Team Leader, German Institute of Development...
Authors
Holger Albrecht
Professor in Political Science, University of Alabama