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Student’s Name
Instructor’s Name
ENG 102
10 April, 2014
The Aftermath of the Lotus Revolution:
The Reasons behind the Spiral Failure:
A Research Outline
I. Abstract
II. Introduction
A. Topic: Success & Failure of Revolutions
B. History of past Egyptian revolutions:
a. The 1919 Revolution
a. Reasons behind the revolution
b. Achievements of the revolution
b. The 1952 stemmed out of the previous revolution and achieved even more than its objectives.
a. Reasons behind the revolution
b. Achievement of the revolution
C. Finally was the outbreak of the 2011 – 2013 Revolution
a. Participants
1. The angry youth
2. People from all walks of life
b. Grievances
1. Unfair distribution of wealth
2. Police brutality
3. Interference of Mubarak’s family in the ruling affairs of the country
c. Demands
1. End of the Hosni Mubarak regime
2. End of emergency law
3. Freedom of expression
4. A responsive non-military government and
5. A say in the management of Egypt's resources
D. Research question(s):
a. Why have we failed to reap any of the revolution’s fruits whereas the previous two revolutions achieved even more than their objectives?
b. Why has the situation gone from bad to worse?
c. Why is Egypt in a spiral of despair?
E. Thesis statement: The researcher attributes such failure to huge accumulations of social, cultural and economic conditions that have formed a barrier to any possible development or to the minimum achievement of the revolutions’ goals.
III. Literature Review
A. Historical Background
a. ”Revolutions in World History” by Michael D. Richards
b. “History of Egyptian Revolutions” by Edward Allen Moor
B. Social Issues
a. “Revolution 2.0” by Earl et al
b. “The Unbridged Gap” by Hassan El Masry
C. The Economic Factors
a. “Economic Surveys” published by the Danish-Egyptian Dialogue Institute
b. “Businesses Sufferings” by Farid Zakaria
IV. Research Methods
The research applies the Triangulation Research Method
A. Historical data: Most prominent sources
B. Interview:
a. Two professors of history and political science
b. two businessmen
C. Survey:
a. Respondents of different ages, gender, social and educational background
D. Findings: Analysis of responses has revealed a lot about the degree of satisfaction with the current situation in Egypt.
a. More than 80% of the respondents don’t feel any economic progress after the revolution.
b. More than 85% of respondents think that neither Egyptian education or Egyptian media help create a tolerant society.
V. Conclusions
A. Topic sentence: The social state of affairs preceding the revolution accounts for a lot of the subsequent instability.
a. Sub idea: Egypt has witnessed huge social gaps.
1. Evidence: Unfair distribution of wealth has marked all aspects of life. As Michael Richards puts it,
2. “Fragile social conditions turn into volatile political conflicts” (86).
b. Sub idea 2: Social injustice is hindering any possible agreements.
a. Evidence: Dr xxx believes that this will lead to an even more aggressive wave of the revolution.
b. Evidence: 98% of the survey respondents do not believe that the revolution has established social justice.
c. Evidence: 72% think that more rebellions are “Very likely”.
c. Sub idea 3: Frustrations were related to the bad performance of the regime.
1. Evidence: “A majority of Egyptians thus feel that the government treats citizens unequally” (Earl et al 6).
B. Topic sentence: Another factor hindering any real achievement of the revolution’s goals is the cultural aspect.
a. Sub idea 1: the contribution of education and schools to the current state of events cannot be missed.
a. Evidence: School books contain material that encourages fanaticism and prejudice.
b. Evidence: 89% of respondents believed that school education plays a culturally destructive role.
b. Sub idea 2: Media is mostly one-sided.
a. Evidence: Shuman argues that public opinion is manipulated to suit the interests of businessmen and the regime.
c. Sub idea 3: the public denounces the influence of social media
a. Evidence: 80% regarded the influence of social media as “Absolutely Negative”.
b. Evidence: 80% regarded “Spreading obscene language” as the most serious drawback of Twitter.
C. Topic sentence: The economic challenges hinder any real achievement of the revolution’s objectives.
a. Sub idea 1. The economy has suffered as a result of political instability.
a. Evidence: Unemployment has increased to 12.7 percent in 2012
b. Evidence: The budget deficit has reaching 11.7 percent in 2012
c. Evidence: Shortage of foreign currencies appeared
d. The Egyptian pound officially lost around 22 percent of its value.
e. Net international reserves started falling immediately after the 2011 revolution.
b. Sub idea 2: The political transition has not generated all the desired outcomes.
a. Evidence: Dr. Samir Radwan believes that “it is difficult to anticipate how events will unfold” (qtd by Hussein).
c. Sub idea 3: Media is partly responsible for the economic failure.
a. Evidence: The activists are permanent talk-show guests, whereas economists are hardly there.
b. Evidence: An interview with two businessmen revealed their obvious pessimism regarding the current economic state and the future of investment.
VI. Recommendations:
A. Overcoming socio-cultural drawbacks,
a. A committee needs to be assigned to:
1. study the content of humanities school courses
2. omit whatever inspires intolerance
3. boost culture of broadmindedness
b. A code of ethics for journalists and TV hosts needs to be set with clear objectives for material that is to be aired.
B. In the field of economics, it is strongly recommended that:
a. The new government needs to address the following:
1. allocating money to the basic needs of the population
2. finding out the reasons behind the closure of 4,500 factories
b. a social contract between the government, businessmen and workers should consider the following:
a. Minimum wages
b. A plan to reduce unemployment