On the January day when Tunisia’s president, Zein al-Abidine Ben Ali, was toppled, kindling months of Arab world uprisings, a protester in Amman, the Jordanian capital, was also making a point that reverberates.
As an angry crowd demonstrated over rising food prices, one demonstrator carried a banner that read: “Jordan is not only for the rich. Bread is a red line. Beware of our starvation and fury.”
It was an early warning of the central role to be played by economics in the multiple protests across the Middle East and north Africa. Just as the autocrats now being challenged have refused to deliver democracy and political reform, so they have neglected to give their people the chance of a reasonable standard of living – or, as important, the prospect of a better one. This failing, afflicting both ruthless dictatorships and superficially more benign autocracies, remains a main driver of protest and a grave threat to the Arab world’s long-term health.
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