The West clearly tends to support dictators more than democracy
Despite the popular/propagandist notion, widely spread over the Western population, that the West wants to defend democracy, many Arabs feel that the West is really after the "stability" provided by strong regimes, which facilitates access to the wealth these regimes control.
"One cannot take seriously the United States or any other Western government that funds political activism by young Arabs while it simultaneously provides funds and guns that help cement the power of the very same Arab governments the young social and political activists target for change."
Rami G. Khouri, The New York Times
The following video gives Noam Chomsky's analysis of the Tunisian events: