Economics focus Degrees of democracy

摘要

ON JUNE 20th Zine el-Abedine Ben-Ali, Tunisia's former ruler, was sentenced in absentia to 35 years in prison. Many trace the origins of the popular rebellion that forced him from office to frustration over the treatment by the police of a young man with few job prospects. That combustible mixture of authoritarianism, unemployment and youth has played a big role in sparking many of the popular uprisings across the Middle East and north Africa that followed Tunisia's. But some argue that increased education should also take credit for the Arab spring.