The Historical Sociology of Social Contract in the Arab World

The recent uprisings in the Arab world that alike the previous ones were started from North Africa (Sudan and Algeria) have limitedly spilled over into Iraqi and Lebanese states; it made one more time necessary for scholars to consider the relations between state and society. In general, the social contract within the Arab world since the post-independence era to Arab uprisings is included in three sections in which the quality of relations between state and society are varied. In other words, the social contract of the Arab world in the modern era (after the First World War) was influenced more by the interests and policies of the major actors in the international environment than by the internal components. In the light of the historical sociological theory of international relations, this article intends to examine the social contract of the Arab world in a historical perspective. In this regard, while focusing on the social contract leading to the Arab unrest, some of the obstacles to the formation of a new and comprehensive social contract in the Arab world will be mentioned.