"The street revolutions that ended communism followed similar patterns because they followed in the wake of a single political event: the abrupt withdrawal of Soviet support for the local dictator.A good thumbnail history lesson by Anne Applebaum of the WaPo. Although, her minimizing the role of radical Islam in this mix is troubling.
The Arab revolutions, by contrast, are the product of multiple changes - economic, technological, demographic - and have taken on a distinctly different flavor and meaning in each country. In that sense, they resemble 1848 far more than 1989."