The Economics of the Arab Spring vs.the French Revolution Essay Example

Even though revolutions occur for many reasons across different eras and cultures, one can find certain commonalities. Generally, revolutions occur when there have been changes and/or improvements in a society, but the rate of change has been too rapid or the rate of improvement within a society is seen as insufficient for the general population. One common thread is a large influx to the cities from the countryside resulting in people who are displaced not only economically, but culturally as well. Economics is often a main driving factor for these influxes, and the Arab Spring and French Revolution is/was no different. High unemployment and unrealistic economic policies drove the Arab Spring and French Revolution. However, grain had a central role in the French Revolution and a weak private sector played a fundamental role in the Arab Spring. Often, revolutions are driven by an extremely high unemployment rate. When hard times cropped up in the countryside, many peasants fled to Paris and other major French cities, with many working as servants or unskilled laborers. This combined with a decrease in the textile industry (superior British quality left many French textile laborers out of jobs) left much of Paris' newfound labor force of 650,000 without steady jobs and therefore consistent food. Wages rose by 22%, while taxes and other expenses rose 62% in 1789, leaving peasants and poor men in the city alike desperately scrambling to feed themselves. Overcrowding in the cities and dire poverty in the country led to an increased dissatisfaction with the monarchy, especially as the opulent lifestyles of the monarchy grew increasingly extravagant by the day. These events in France are comparable to the unemployment rates and effects in the Arab Spring. A few decades before the Arab Spring, people began moving to the cities from farming countrysides in large numbers. The families that became established in the cities had approximately the same number of