
The opening months of this year were marked by two surprising events in the Arab world; political change in Tunisia and then in Egypt after decades of dictatorship, corruption and repression. And Egyptians and Tunisians both invented a peaceful approach that required neither a political party nor a charismatic leader to bring about revolutionary change. There was no revolutionary doctrine to guide the masses in Cairo or Tunis, only stubborn demands that their dictators should resign immediately and open the way for a pluralistic political system, and that the dictators and corrupt family members be judged and punished along with their business associates.