Essay: Impact of the Colored Revolutions on the Egyptian revolution

Introduction
The 20th Century witnessed several cases of democratic victories to the extent that it was called “The Age of Democratic Revolutions”, this period was marked by continuous conflict between democracy and authoritarianism, especially the last three decades, with the unprecedented democratic surge that started in Eastern Europe and diffused till it reached the Arab Region, adding more essential experiences to the field.
The accumulation of these historical experiences increased the debate on the impact of the external factors on the domestic politics which has been a matter of controversy for so long. In the 19th and the first half of the 20th Centuries it was thought – mistakenly- that there is a separation between domestic and external politics, thus, the fields of comparative politics and international relation developed as far apart.
However, since the 60s, there has been a growing recognition of the relationship between the external and the domestic; “James Rosenau”, suggested the concept of “linkage politics”, it indicates the interactions between two disciplines of study; comparative politics and international relations”, emphasizing on the mutual impact between the domestic and the external; gradually this idea became an integral part of the body of knowledge in both fields
This thesis lies in the broader context of the “Linkage Politics”, in the modern world – and especially with the globalization effects- the international system shapes and determines the structure of political systems; in the same time the internal characteristics of these political systems produce the essential ingredients for its responses and in turn for the whole international system. Such interaction made it increasingly hard to identify the boarders between what is considered internal factor and what is external one.
With regard to democracy, this linkage manifested in a number of theories such as; “The Domino Theory” that was firstly used as a metaphor describing the wide spread of the communist ideology especially in Asia. Practically this theory came into effect during 1950s, it was endorsed and used by the US government as part of the Cold War propaganda strategy. The theory was promoted again in the 1980s; it stipulates that; in a given region, if one influential country falls, then the rest of the countries will fall like a row of dominoes. In our context, the democratic domino theory states that the increase or decrease in democracy in one crucial country spread and “infect” the neighboring countries, increasing or decreasing their democracy in turn. Other theories came to effect with the same principle, such as the demonstration effect; stating that political movements are often given a boost from the observed success of similar political movements in other countries.
In the late 80s and the 90s, globalization came to bring closer the global and the internal; political systems have been increasingly globalized which penetrated all aspects of life including economic, social and political aspects, this paralleled with the growing international interdependence, and the diminishing role of the regional borders as barriers preventing international interactions. Under such pressures the state\’s role and sovereignty declined noticeably on the official and unofficial levels, States actions became highly restricted by the influence of the international responsibility, the international humanitarian law and the new political actors; such as, the international institutions, non-governmental organizations and the multi-national corporations, given these interconnections, it became increasingly difficult to decide the limits where the internal or the external starts and ends.
Today the world is witnessing a new phase; the use of modern technologies and new media made the world more integrated, this all started with the third wave of democratization and continued to diffuse till it reached the least expected areas – the Arab Region- with more expectations that the diffusion will continue to change the global democratic map.
1. Research Problem
This thesis is constructed to serve a twofold purpose; the first is analyzing the impact of the Colored Revolutions on the Egyptian revolution by utilizing the concept of democratic wave diffusion and the second is placing these movements on the global democratization map in the light of the previous historical experiences.
Thus, the main problem this thesis examines is how far the Egyptian uprisings and demonstrations that spread throughout the country were influenced by the Colored Revolutions in terms of; the reasons behind the burst of the social movements, its techniques, the main actors and how far they were aware of the previous models. Moreover, determining the nature of these movements whether they are a complementary phase to the third wave or a part of a new wave.
The relationship between these different models can be demarcated as follow; they emerged against competitive authoritarian regimes – hybrid regimes- and not a one party system as in the cases of the countries originating the third wave, besides, these countries already took some steps in the path of democratization, enjoyed some liberties and pseudo-democracies. Based on these similarities the thesis will fulfill its purpose by comparing and contrasting these revolutions to determine the impact of the Colored Revolutions on the Egyptian one through examining the following variables;
1. The role of the new actors, especially the youth movements, in inaugurating the change and toppling down the regimes.
2. The utilization of non-violent mass mobilization techniques, strategies, logos and slogans.
3. The flow of information and its role in creating the masses awareness and perception, especially with the reliance on the new media and social networks in disseminating the information and the revolutionary experiences.
2. Domain of Analysis
The notion of Colored Revolutions here refers to the revolutionary wave that took the form of various successive movements developed in several societies in the former Soviet Union and the Balkans during the early 2000s that occurred in Serbia (Bulldozer Revolution), Georgia (Rose Revolution), Ukraine (Orange Revolution) and Kyrgyzstan (Tulip Revolution) Between 2000 and 2005. In this thesis the Colored Revolutions are perceived as a late phase in the third wave of democratization that started on 1974. All these movements shared common factors; they were inaugurated by youth movements, adopting non-violent techniques either in the resistance or mass mobilization, finally they relied on the new media and some on the social networking.
While the Egyptian revolution refers to the demonstrations and mass movements that took place from January 25 till February 11, 2011, it represented the culmination of the political activism that started in Egypt since 2005 with the formation of “Kefaya movement” and further empowered by the emergence of “April 6 Movement” in 2008. while the term Arab Spring refers to the consecutive revolutions that were able to topple down the previous regimes in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen which took place in the year 2011.
The thesis attempts to place the Colored Revolutions, Egyptian Revolution and the Arab Spring in the broader context of the global democratization map, hence, its scope includes the study of the theory of democratic waves in general, using some explanatory propositions such as; the diffusion of democracy, the domino effect and the late response.
The time horizon for this thesis extends from the year 2000 till 2011. Though, the study starts since the beginning of the Third Wave in 1974, this domain was identified as it includes the period during which the Colored revolutions occurred in Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine and Kyrgyzstan between 2000 and 2005, also it witnessed the precursors of the Egyptian revolution from 2005 till 2011.
3. Importance of the Subject
This thesis aspires to contribute to academic knowledge by exploring the following;
a. The novelty of the subject as it is considered among the few academic contributions studying the impact of the Colored Revolutions on the Egyptian one. Previous researches studied the internal factors, while this thesis adds a new value in studying the impact of both internal and external factors.
b. The thesis applies new concept to the study of the Colored Revolutions and the Egyptian Revolution which is: the late response or the complementary wave.
c. This thesis applies the concept of wave; it tries to place the Egyptian Revolution in particular and the Arab Spring in general on the global democratization context.
d. Applying the concept of wave will provide a better understanding and even more precise expectations about the future of the similar uprisings and revolutions. While Studying the wave and its dynamics provides a better understanding on its development, ability to affect others and destiny.
4. Literature Review
In surveying of the literature on democratization, several prominent themes stand out. Much has been written on democratic transition, exporting democracy, democratic waves and diffusion of democracy, these literatures was enriched by several case studies discussing the phenomena of democratic wave, especial emphasis was given to the third wave of democratization and the transition in Eastern Europe countries. The burst of the uprisings in the Arab countries increased the cases of study and thrived the literature as well.
As mentioned previously, the purpose of this thesis is to scrutinize the concept of democratic wave, the factors affecting it especially the diffusion process, also to answer the main question on the existence of a fourth wave of democratization or the continuity of the third one. To fulfill this purpose the thesis classifies the relevant previous literature into three categories; the first category the books and articles related to the concept of wave and its development, the concept of diffusion and the arguments on the third and fourth waves of democratization, the second category includes the books and articles examining the Colored Revolutions cases, its occurrence, the most influential actors and its destiny; while the third category is targeted to the Egyptian Revolution. Based on the arguments provided in these three categories the thesis constructs its own arguments.
Democratization is a long term process, several factors contributes to the occurrence of this process. The field of political science witnessed several arguments till it accepted the existence of democratic waves, the following briefly reviews some arguments supporting the existence of a democratic wave and the different influences on its existence, the diffusion process, its mechanism and its main actors, also both arguments on the existence of a third and/or fourth waves of democratization.
In reviewing the literature on the notion of wave several contributions appeared; the most influential among them was the seminal work of Huntington in “The Third Wave of Democratization in the Late Twentieth Century” where he traced the historical process of modern democratization and acknowledged the wave nature of the democratic diffusion, he was the first to present the wave categorization as known to the field today. He introduced new concepts and measurements for this phenomena and provided general patterns to trace the existence of a wave, his work provided the base for the succeeding scholars who used the same concept and measurements in studying the nature and diffusion of several political phenomena. Other scholars as Haerpfer proposed theoretical and practical dimensions of democratization in a systematic way focusing on the \’global wave of democratization\’ which has been happening since about 1970, his arguments were among those supporting the continuity of the third wave. Unlike Huntington who focused on the internal factors more than the external ones, Haepfer\’s perspective to the democratic diffusion gave more attention to the international factors that affect the political decisions at the level of the nation state. Also in identifying the driving social forces of democratic transition, the pivotal actors and institutions involved in democratization, the primacy was to the external factors. He confirmed on the wave nature of the democratization and determined the wave diffusion critical prerequisites, especially in the third wave.
The previously mentioned scholars discussed both internal and external influences on the democratic wave diffusion, others, as Renske Doorenspleet proposed a different perspective, she discussed the key concepts and major theoretical approaches to democratization, providing supporting statistical analyses to illuminate the influence of structural -primarily economic- and social factors on democratic transitions. She also explored the notion of “wave” of democratization focusing on the 1989-2001 period, she offered a wealth of new evidence covering two centuries of democratic transitions around the globe. Her arguments showed the development on the concept since Huntington\’s thesis. She further expounded in another article on the wave nature of the democratic diffusion, using a dichotomous measure of democracy that creates the potential for inaccurate analysis of democracy and democratic/autocratic transition, the findings supported Huntington\’s wave thesis. The article proceeded to locate the sources of the democratic waves. Reformulating and expanding on Huntington, the `stickiness\’ of certain institutional configurations, the influence of neighboring countries, and shocks to the interstate system such as the world wars are the main explanation of a wave, in combination with the slow but certain impact of economic development.
For the wave to occur the diffusion elements have to be at work, Johan A. Elkink, was among the scholars explaining the diffusion process, he tackled the idea that democracy is contagious and diffuses across the world; he further criticized the focus on political elites in explaining the diffusion and proposed an explanation based on the dynamics of public opinion and mass revolutions, he confirmed on the diffusion of attitudes, in combination with a cascading model of revolutions, as a possible theoretical explanation of the spatial clustering of democracy. Scholars like Harvard Strand also supported the wave nature, arguing that democratization occur in waves and there are global patterns for these waves. They added that transitions are best analyzed in small steps and defined the change to political systems accordingly. Finally the contribution of Sally Isaac she identified the fundamental characteristics of a revolutionary waves, she confirmed that for a wave to be successful it has to change the shape of the entire geographic regions or to lead to strategic and economic alterations in the current international context.
The continuous democratic transition cases enrich the academic debates on the waves, scholars divided into two groups some including the new cases in the third wave while others arguing the inauguration of a fourth wave. Papaioannou and Siourounis were among the scholars supporting the existence of a third wave; they identified the permanent democratic transitions during the third wave using 63 incidents from resources in 174 countries in the period 1960-2005, the constructed dataset identified the significant correlates of successful democratic transitions, with emphasis on the non-democratic nature of these countries in the beginning of the third wave. Such arguments are used in identifying the nature of our cases of study, either they are part of the third wave or if they formulate a new wave. The second group who supported the idea of the existence of a fourth wave were led by McFaul who argued the existence of a fourth wave of democratization starting with the case of Serbia in 2000, he focused on the eruption of successive upheavals in Eastern Europe as an indicator to the beginning of a new wave and the reason behind this is the use of new tools, the peaceful resistance, that spread across the different countries in the region. While Harris Mylonas, proposed a different argument on the existence of a fourth wave through analyzing the different models of democratic transitions and the lessons drawn from, then he built an analyses on the existence of a fourth wave of democratization emphasizing on the social movements and its techniques and how the leadership deal with it.
Based on the previous literature the thesis affirms on the wave nature of the democratic diffusion and adopts Huntington\’s definition as the most comprehensive one. The increasing cases of study raised new questions on the limits and destiny of a wave, also on allocating these new cases on the global democratic map. The diffusion is a democratization tool and a sub process that consumes a lot of time as well and is affected by several factors; political, social, economic and geographic. Due to the globalization effect which increased the linkage between the internal and external factors this process speeded up, created more interactions among the different actors and resulted in the existence of new phases in the process such as the late response or complementary wave as will be shown in the following chapters.
To fulfill the main purpose of the thesis which is to measure the impact of the Colored Revolutions on the Egyptian one and to locate both of them on the global democratic map this section will review the different literature on the cases of the Colored Revolutions. Starting with Beacháin and Polese contribution, they provided a detailed comprehensive analysis to the regime-change process in the cases of Serbian Bulldozer Revolution (2000), Georgian Rose Revolution (2003), Ukrainian Orange Revolution (2004) and Kyrgyzstani Tulip Revolution (2005) being the most dramatic examples. The main arguments examined the ideologies of the post-Soviet ruling regimes, showing how political elites integrated nationalism, populism and authoritarianism into political debates. The authors compared the causes of change in the former Soviet republics comprehensively, including republics such as Russia where colored revolutions did not occur, despite apparently favorable conditions and whether there is a revolutionary blueprint that has been exported and continues to be transferred to other areas of the world under autocratic rule. They also identified the conditions for successful colored revolution. Due to the supremacy of the role of the new social movements, especial emphasis was given to the anti-regime opposition movements, the factors behind their rise, their structure, how they operated and to what extend they were impacted by the external forces including the United States, the European Union and Russia. Other Scholars as Mitchell focused on the common causes of change that was the reason behind the diffusion and its consequences. He identified both common themes and national variations to stand upon the role of the internal factors, then he addressed the external ones through analyzing the role of American democracy promotion programs, the responses of nondemocratic regimes to the Colored Revolutions, the impact of these events on U.S.-Russian relations, and the reasons behind the failure of the revolutions in Azerbaijan and Belarus in 2005 and 2006. The arguments provided a different analytical perspective to these revolutions, moreover, the author compared between the Colored Revolutions and the Arab Spring which draws on the impact of the former on the latter.
Pavel K. Baev proposed a third perspective in analyzing the Colored Revolutions as an organized unarmed public uprising aimed at replacing a discredited regime with a more democratic government. He went beyond the common identification of the Colored Revolutions stating that careful examination showed that, besides the four most acknowledged cases, eight more could be added to the list of colored revolutions, making it possible to investigate characteristic features of the phenomenon and to evaluate the trend of failure in attempts at revolution since 2005. Lucan Way provided an analysis to the Colored Revolutions focusing on the causal variables such as regional diffusion, leadership strategy, and popular mass protests. He argued that the changes in these regimes couldn’t be considered as a part of a new wave.
The following is a special section on the Colored Revolutions the Journal of Democracy devoted its issue of January 2009 for a number of comments and rebuttals to the article of Lucan way mentioned above. The thesis coincide them as one piece as they produce a polemic. The first article responded to Way\’s arguments stating that Way underestimated the importance of the strength of autocratic parties or armed forces. Moreover, Silitski provided analysis to the social movements in these countries stating that in order to explain these events, diffusion and structure need not be viewed as mutually exclusive causal variables. Indeed, diffusion, working in different structural and cultural contexts, has produced diverse political outcomes. Beissinger added another contribution responding to Way\’s; he focused on the social movements and the opposition mobilization power stating the failure of the politics of mobilization on several accounts; first, authoritarian weakness alone cannot address the contingencies involved in the process of mobilization, second, it cannot explain why these revolutions assumed similar forms across diverse contexts, and third, it does not tell us why attempts at revolution rapidly proliferated across so many different contexts during a short period of time.
Lucan Way responded to the critiques stating that the debate on the colored revolutions is principally about the relative importance ascribed to diffusion versus certain key structural factors. Contingent factors played a role both in mobilizing opposition and in defeating incumbents, but diffusion was only one such contingent factor, and not necessarily the most important. Bunce supported Way that structural factors make competitive regimes more or less vulnerable, yet she mentioned that he ignored the durability of even very weak regimes. Bunce emphasized on the role of the opposition and its mobilization. The last argument added by Dimitrov who stating that economic populism, anti-Western nationalism, and muzzling the media – cumulatively- these three strategies produced high levels of regime legitimacy, stability and prevented the rise of a successful opposition movement. These arguments contributed in analyzing the causes behind the Colored Revolutions. The diverse propositions pinned down the main variables and methodology causing the collapse of several authoritarian regimes, the role opposition and finally the impact of the external factors. Furthermore, the variables used by the different authors to explain the real causes behind the Colored Revolutions will be used as indicators in comparing them to the Egyptian one.
The Egyptian revolution inspired several researchers to tackle the phenomena. A lot of papers came at the hands of both Arab and Western writers analyzing the eruption of revolution and its diffusion throughout the region, they questioned the nature of the regime, the reasons behind its rapid collapse and how far it was affected by the external factors.
Bahgat Korany, had several contributions analyzing the uprisings either in Egypt or the – so called- Arab spring. He focused on the regional dynamics that led to the diffusion of the revolutions and expounded the development of Arab civil society with focus on the opportunities and challenges facing the media and linked the debates concerning the political thought to the evolving regional and international context. In another book he and Rabab El-Mahdi introduced a comprehensive analysis to the Egyptian revolution from different perspectives, analyzing the dynamics of protests focusing on the underlying causes behind its outbreak. They also Tackled both internal and external factors that led to the burst of the revolution. Other scholars as Marc Lynch focused on the role of youth, the dynamics of their movements, its influence on the revolution and stated that the fall of particular leaders is but the least of the changes that will emerge from months of unrest.
The contribution of Mohamed Abdel Fadil on the role of the virtual opposition and more generally the role of social media in the eruption and mobilization of the revolution. He proposed an analysis to the way the Egyptian youth were able to transfer their virtual activism to the real world. While Mladen Joksic was among the first to draw the attention to the relation between the colored revolution and the Egyptian one focusing on how the youth benefited from their counterparts in the colored revolutions, their tools, tactics, strategies and the similarities and differences among these models. Finally the contribution of Tina Rosenberg who focused on the role of youth in general and April 6 movement in particular as the main contributor in this revolution. She referred to the role of CANVAS in her analysis and how the Egyptian youth were copying Otpor. Although the Egyptian revolution cannot be judged yet as a success of failure, yet these literature provide an overview to the reasons behind the burst of the revolution, the internal and external factors and finally the most influential actors.
5. Hypotheses
After reviewing the different literature we can hypothesize that in the context of the Third Democratic Wave the Colored Revolutions are considered a late phase of this wave. They occurred as a result of the failure of the initial democratization process that took place in these countries throughout the 90s. Thus, they represented a sort of complementary wave to the original one.
Similar to these countries, Egypt witnessed successive revolts and uprisings although it took previously some steps on the path of democratization. However, these steps were partial and didn\’t change the basic features of the authoritarian regime which resulted into the burst of this revolution.
From this perspective the thesis main hypothesis is;
In the context of the Third Democratic Wave the Colored Revolutions are considered a late phase in the wave. In turn these Colored Revolutions impacted upon the Egyptian Revolution in a way that allows researchers to place it as a complementary wave. The impact will be examined by employing the following three key variables;
1. The role of the new actors, especially the youth movements, in inaugurating the change and toppling down the regimes.
2. The utilization of non-violent mass mobilization techniques, strategies, logos and slogans.
3. The flow of information and its role in creating the masses awareness and perception, especially with the reliance on the new media and social networks in disseminating the information and the revolutionary experiences.
In order to confirm or falsify the research hypothesis the research will try to answer the following questions; What are the main features that bring together the Colored Revolutions and the Egyptian revolution in terms of causes, dynamics and influential actors? Do the Egyptian revolutionary leaders reflect a notion of diffusion and/or were they aware of what happened in the Colored Revolutions? What are the similarities/differences in the social movements between the Colored Revolutions and the Egyptian Revolution? What are the similarities/differences in using the modern technologies especially the internet and social media? What are the similarities/differences in the mobilization techniques and the chants and slogans used? And In what sense do these revolutions are conceptualized in the context of diffusion and democratic waves?
6. Methodology
Having established the background literature framing this thesis and identifying its hypothesis, it is important to consider the methodology employed to collect the necessary data for analysis.
The thesis is studying an ongoing phenomenon so it adopts Qualitative research methods to enable explaining the relationship and describe the variations among the Colored Revolutions and the Egyptian one, also to analyze the democratic wave phenomena. Thus, there is no intervention or control of variables. Besides, this thesis will use an inductive methodology to gain a deeper understanding of the position of these movements in the global democratization map, to accomplish this the following approaches will be adopted.
a. Comparative Approach
The methodology used in this thesis is the comparative analysis; as it enables exploring the similarities and differences among the data. The thesis will also use the comparative case study. Creswell defines a case study as “an exploration of a ‘bounded system’ or a case (or multiple cases) over time through detailed, in-depth data collection involving multiple sources of information rich in context”. Likewise, according to George and Bennett, the case study approach can be defined as, ‘…both within-case analysis of single case and comparisons of a small number of cases…’ They choose to include both within-case and comparison between cases as part of the case study approach because, ‘…there is a growing consensus that the strongest means of drawing inferences from case studies is the use of a combination of within-case analysis and cross-case comparisons within a single study or research program…’ . Obviously, the ‘case’ being studied is the democratic waves, and more specifically, the democratic diffusion phenomena, while the context of the case involves studying the impact of the Colored Revolutions on the Egyptian Revolution, so that this is a comparative case study.
In the qualitative analysis, data collection and analysis proceed simultaneously. The steps in running the analysis includes preliminary exploration of the data by reading through the transcripts and writing memos, connecting and interrelating themes; and constructing a narrative . Data analysis involves developing a detailed description of each case regarding the variables of study. Based on this analysis, the thesis provides a detailed narration of the cases of study, using either an elaborate perspective about some incidents, chronology, or major events followed by an up-close description.
The analysis of the data will be conducted in a structured focused manner; the method is structured as the research questions reflect the research objective and that these questions are applied on each case under study to guide and standardize data collection, thereby making systematic comparison and culmination of the findings of the cases possible. And the method is focused in that it deals only with certain aspects of the historical cases examined.
b. Diffusion Approach
This approach appeared as part of the larger framework of “Linkage Politics” that was inaugurated by James Rosenau, and developed by a number of researchers such as Robert Putnam and Graham Allison , it refers to the erosion of the boundaries between the comparative politics and international relations fields, as a result of the increased overlap between the internal and the external factors to the extent that it became difficult to separate them, the emergence of globalization enhanced using this approach.
Furthermore, Everett Rogers defined this approach in his book “The diffusion of innovations” in 1962 Rogers argues that diffusion is the process by which an innovation is communicated through certain channels over time among the participants in a social system. The origins of the diffusion of innovations theory are varied and span multiple disciplines. Rogers proposes that four main elements influence the spread of a new idea: the innovation itself, communication channels, time, and a social system. This process relies heavily on human capital.
This approach appeared as a result two main developments; the first is related to the concept of linkage politics and how it got different approaches together, the second development is a historic one as a result to the emergence of globalization. This approach has been used by many political scientists such as Jean Grugel and Kristian Gelditch to study the mechanics of policy diffusion, diffusion channels, the spread of social movements and democratic diffusion. In the context of this thesis, diffusion approach will be adopted in the terms stated by Huntington in studying the democratic diffusion from one country.
The diffusion approach usually describes the characteristics of existing (indigenous or traditional) society, a description of the characteristics of “modern” society, and a discussion of areas that will be affected by contact between the two societies, this will be integrated with the comparative method to enable the pinning down the relationship between the most influential variables and to determine the similarities and differences between the models of study.
7. Thesis Division
This thesis is composed of six chapters. Chapter One develops the theoretical framework of the concepts of democratic wave and diffusion. Starting with an analysis to the concept of democratic wave shedding light on its development, the most influential elements of the concept and the factors affecting the wave in general. Moving to the diffusion process, the chapter includes a brief analysis to the dynamics of diffusion and how it affects the different countries causing a democratic wave. The chapter concludes by identifying the terms of primary phase and late response which are crucial in placing the cases of our study in the global democratic map and finally it determines the most influential agents of change that existed in all the cases of study, these are; youth, mass mobilization and collective action and new media.
The Second chapter provides an analysis to the cases of the colored revolutions, starting with the chronology of each of these revolutions, how they started, why they were dubbed these names, the course of actions and how they ended. The second part of the chapter presents an analysis to the role of the most influential factors in each of these revolutions, starting with the role of youth that appeared in the formation of new youth social movements such as Otpor, Kmara, Pora and Kelkel and how they were replicated in each of these models, the second factor is the tools of mass mobilization, determining how the activists were able to create new resistance techniques and overcome the collective action problem, finally it shows how they used the new media as an influential tool attributed to the success of their movements. The chapter concludes by identifying the dynamics of inaugurating a colored revolution.
Chapters from three to five provides a comprehensive comparative analysis to the Egyptian Revolution 2011 through comparing the role of the most influential actors with the ones stated in the previous chapter. Chapter three focuses on the role of youth as the main instrument of change in the revolution, the chapter presents the historical development of the role of youth in the Egyptian political life and how this role changed till the time of the revolution, followed by an analysis to role of the new social movements such as “Kefaya” and “April 6” who were very identical to the colored revolutions youth movements. Then it illuminates the different trainings these youth had through different training channels and concludes by the quest for external support as an important realm to the success of the revolution. Chapter four presents the role of the mass mobilization and collective action in the Egyptian revolution that was significant in the street politics, the use of new peaceful resistance techniques, creating new symbols and logos and finally utilizing art and music in mobilizing the masses which take the form of different graffiti, songs and poems. The chapter concludes by comparing these tools to those in the models of the colored revolutions showing the similarities and differences among them. Chapter five analyzes the impact of the new media on the revolution, including the different tools used in the course of the revolutions such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and blogs. This analysis illustrates how these tools were used to mobilize and publicize for the revolution either internally or internationally.
Finally Chapter Six sums up by providing answers to the theoretical debate on the third wave based on the analysis provided in the previous four chapters. It presents both arguments on the existence of a third and fourth wave. It compares and contrasts the arguments of the advocates of both groups and the features of each wave to identify their limits and concludes by categorizing the cases of the colored revolutions and the Egyptian one as a late response to the colored revolutions. Finally there is a brief conclusion summarizing the main findings of the whole thesis.