After rentierism? Examining the rentier states of Egypt and Tunisia in light of the Arab Spring and its wake

This thesis examines the rentier state dynamics of Egypt and Tunisia in light of the Arab Spring and its wake. I argue that rentierism preserved an authoritarian status quo in MENA by fueling mechanisms of state repression and co-optation that maintained order and blocked political change. The onset of the Arab Spring indicates that the rentier state foundations of Egypt and Tunisia are weakening or have significantly eroded. Thus, I analyze the durability, vitality, and resilience of the rentier state dynamics of both countries respectively to gain insight into their prospects for and contours of political change. Moreover, I contend that the rentier state prism provides a tool to explain the divergent political trajectories of Egypt and Tunisia in the wake of the Arab Spring.;My findings indicate that the interplay of changing economic, demographic, political, and structural variables has diminished the ability of the states in this study to accumulate power by traditional rentier state mechanisms. The evidence also suggests that Egypt's return to an ancien style regime in the post Arab Spring period, and thus its journey down a different political path than the more liberal one traversed by Tunisia, has been facilitated in part by its more prominent rentier state characteristics.