Priscilla Álamos Concha - Conditions and Causal Mechanisms of Large-scale Contentious Politics in Authoritarian Regimes: A Multimethod Analysis of Middle East and North Africa Countries, 2010-2012

Le Recteur de l'Université catholique de Louvain fait savoir que

Mme. Priscilla Álamos Concha

soutiendra publiquement sa dissertation pour l'obtention du titre de Docteure en Sciences Politiques et Sociales

«Conditions and Causal Mechanisms of Large-scale Contentious Politics in Authoritarian Regimes: A Multimethod Analysis of Middle East and North Africa Countries, 2010-2012».

Résumé 

In 2011 and 2012, during the so-called ‘Arab spring’ period, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen experienced successful large-scale contentious politics, i.e. contentious politics leading to the displacement of the national political leader. By contrast, during that same period, other regimes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region did face some degree of contentious politics, but never large-scale or successful. This research tackles two key questions: Why does large-scale contentious politics successfully arise in some MENA countries while not in others? And what are the causal mechanisms that facilitate the success of large-scale contentious politics in the typical case of Tunisia? These two questions are addressed through a multimethod research design. Fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis (fsQCA) is first exploited to comparatively analyze 14 MENA countries and to systematically identify core combinations of conditions leading (or not) to successful large-scale contentious politics. Then a theory-testing process-tracing technique is used to gain some deeper understanding of the causal mechanisms of the success of large-scale contentious politics in Tunisia. A rich variety of data, both quantitative and qualitative – including some ethnographic and field research material – are exploited throughout the research.

Membres du jury 

Président : Amine Ait-Chaalal (UCLouvain)
Promoteur : Benoît Rihoux (UCLouvain)
Membre du comité d’accompagnement : Gary Goertz (University of Notre Dame)
Membre du comité d’accompagnement : Vincent Legrand (UCLouvain)
Membre du Jury: Patrick Mello (Technical University of Munich)
Membre du Jury: Elena Aoun (UCLouvain)