"What was previously experienced as proper or natural is now increasingly experienced as a form of domination and injustice," Werner told AFP. Elsewhere, as in Hong Kong, Algeria and India, calls for greater political freedom have become a potent rallying force. And reflecting the distrust of top-down democracy, most movements have rejected leadership, embracing instead a "horizontal" organization facilitated by social media or as in Hong Kong by secure message apps. In some countries authorities have tried to curtain the social movements by cutting off the internet. "It's not that the nature of authority changed -- elites are just as unaccountable today as they were ten years ago," Werner said.

Source: Libya Today December 26, 2019 08:15 UTC