"In a matter of weeks, two longstanding authoritarian regimes in Tunisia and Egypt fell, while leaders of other Arab states braced for the worst. These explosions took the world by surprise, unleashing a search for the causal factors underlying this cascade of contention" (Bessinger, Jamal & Mazur, 2015, p
What first started in Sao Paolo, the wave of dissent expanded to over three hundred and fifty towns and cities, bringing in millions of people onto the streets. "The surge forced the authorities to cancel an increase in transport fares, and posed a real threat to the Confederations Cup, the showpiece football tournament then under way across the country -- preparation for the World Cup Brazil is hosting in 2014" (Singer, 2014, p
The middle class has played a role in several movements of 2011 seen in Greece, Turkey and Brazil continuing to the protests of 2013. "These eruptions brought both middle-class and popular youth onto the streets, and in some instances their parents as well, against corrupt, exclusivist, socially polarizing capitalist systems" (Therborn, 2014, p