The Dialectic of Justice and Freedom in Light of the Arab Revolutions: Democracy as the Justice of the 21st Century

This paper presents a reading of the Arab Spring’s events and an attempt to forecast its future by examining the relationship between the ongoing social movements and various contemporary ideas concerning the philosophy of justice. This study also examines some of the notions of justice that have arisen in the Arab tradition in order to distinguish the elements that are likely to persist from those that are likely to be surpassed and replaced. It also stresses the fact that the concept of justice in the Arab tradition was developed in isolation from the principle of freedom. Subsequently, the paper discusses the Arab Spring’s future potential—ranging from constituting the onset of a global movement against the existing form of globalization, which is based on unjust principles and, therefore, the central target of those seeking justice and freedom—to turning toward isolationism and the traditional Arab notion of justice, which is separate from freedom, or even turning toward justice at the expense of freedom. Finally, the paper presents the conditions that must be met in order to ensure that the demands of justice and freedom will overlap as part of a continual dialectic between the two concepts.

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This paper presents a reading of the Arab Spring’s events and an attempt to forecast its future by examining the relationship between the ongoing social movements and various contemporary ideas concerning the philosophy of justice. This study also examines some of the notions of justice that have arisen in the Arab tradition in order to distinguish the elements that are likely to persist from those that are likely to be surpassed and replaced. It also stresses the fact that the concept of justice in the Arab tradition was developed in isolation from the principle of freedom. Subsequently, the paper discusses the Arab Spring’s future potential—ranging from constituting the onset of a global movement against the existing form of globalization, which is based on unjust principles and, therefore, the central target of those seeking justice and freedom—to turning toward isolationism and the traditional Arab notion of justice, which is separate from freedom, or even turning toward justice at the expense of freedom. Finally, the paper presents the conditions that must be met in order to ensure that the demands of justice and freedom will overlap as part of a continual dialectic between the two concepts.

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