Ali Mokhtari; Reza Dehbanipour
Abstract
Prior to the 2011 Egyptian revolution, scholars would assess the state–society relations in Egypt in the age of globalization as ineffective, considering any change impossible. However, popular movements in the Middle East and the easy collapse of state indicated that the state–society relation ...
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Prior to the 2011 Egyptian revolution, scholars would assess the state–society relations in Egypt in the age of globalization as ineffective, considering any change impossible. However, popular movements in the Middle East and the easy collapse of state indicated that the state–society relation was not passive. In an attempt to re-examine state–society relations, this research focuses on why and how the state–society relations in Egypt, which had been based on authoritarian hegemony, underwent rupture and crisis. Moreover, it tries to explain how the state has managed to deal with the transformation of civil society. The findings show that despite the state’s incomplete and reductionist approach to globalization, the decrease in the state control over economy, in public services and the increase in inequality crisis all have led to class divisions, unemployment, and inflation. The loss of the elements integral to state hegemony led to the emergence of discontented and insurgent political subjects, which made the state insist on its repressive, non-ideological, and undemocratic functions. Due to the weakness in reproducing its power in civil society and the failure to realize the change in the subject’s sensibility–behavior schemata, the state failed in the face of the immediate movement of people, and emerging sociopolitical forces overthrew the state with the help of new media facilities.
Hassan Ahmadian
Abstract
The purpose of this article is to examine the practical dimensions of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's government experience on the basis of the theoretical foundations of this movement. Through this study, the author seeks to analyze the most important political debates over the one-year rule of the ...
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The purpose of this article is to examine the practical dimensions of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood's government experience on the basis of the theoretical foundations of this movement. Through this study, the author seeks to analyze the most important political debates over the one-year rule of the Brotherhood in Egypt and the consequences of its overthrow. In other words, explaining the critiques of the Brotherhood's practical approach and the practical and sometimes theoretical responses of the Brotherhood's government and its supporters are the subject of the article's discussion. As we know, the Muslim Brotherhood failed to achieve the democratic transition in Egypt, and its governmental experience led to the Egyptian democratic retreat. The twofold question of the paper is how the practical foundations of the Brotherhood's rule had its effect on its overthrow and what the consequences of this transformation would have on the Brotherhood movement as well as on Egyptian civil rule. In response, it is argued that the failure of pivotal principle of the Brotherhood model of rule, that is balancing, in the chaotic Egyptian environment led to its overthrow; The consequence of this overthrow, in addition to promoting the Brotherhood's pragmatism and increasing divisions, is spreading extremism and the difficulty of Brotherhood's return to power, which overall makes political reconciliation more difficult. Accordingly, the author, in a deductive process, relying on library data, has attempted to follow the process of change in the cause and effect of the research, explaining the reasons for the Brotherhood's functioning in government and its overthrow on the basis of its theory. The time frame of the article would be the Brotherhood's reign until the July 2013 coup and includes references to the aftermath.
faez dinparast; zahra Ramezani
Abstract
The present paper aims to answer the question: Why instability erupted within the political scene of Egypt in context of so called Arab spring revolutions from January 2011 up the coup in June 2013. According to Charles Tilly’s social movement theory, the present study claims that those instabilities ...
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The present paper aims to answer the question: Why instability erupted within the political scene of Egypt in context of so called Arab spring revolutions from January 2011 up the coup in June 2013. According to Charles Tilly’s social movement theory, the present study claims that those instabilities were results of weak and brittle coalitions which were formed between political groups in Egypt. The study hypothesis was analyzed through the game theory. Muslim brotherhood, Salafi forces, Liberal-Secular forces and Egyptian Army were identified as four main players within the political scene in Egypt according to Tilly’s theory. The relationships between those main political players were analyzed using the game theory concept based on two strategies of “making coalition” or “avoiding coalition”. From the total 17 resulting calculated scenarios (4 players each with two strategies), 12 acceptable scenarios were identified. The results showed that the political situation will tend to move towards stability if the military and secular forces form a coalition. This result can be linked to two after coup periods between 2013 and the present time. Also our findings based on game theory and Nash’s equilibrium theory suggests that Egypt needs a triangle of political forces to prevail the arena in order to achieve a stable situation. Since the weights of stability condition for three tier coalition of brotherhood-secular-army, or salafi-brotherhood-army or secular-brotherhood-Salafi are almost identical, it can be stated that political stability in Egypt is more depending on the number of forces which enter a coalition than the type of players which form the coalition.
Kamran Rabiei Rabiei
Abstract
It is safe to say that over the past decade, no region in the world as much as the Middle East and North Africa has been involved with rapid political developments, unrest and instability. The beginning of a cycle of mass protests and instability in the aftermath of the Arab Spring is just one of those ...
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It is safe to say that over the past decade, no region in the world as much as the Middle East and North Africa has been involved with rapid political developments, unrest and instability. The beginning of a cycle of mass protests and instability in the aftermath of the Arab Spring is just one of those cases. The main purpose of the present research is to explain the conditions of the Arab Spring formation. The main question of the present research is what caused the Arab Spring to begin with Tunisia and Egypt? In this research, it is attempted to explain the conditions of development and the beginning of the Arab Spring based on the multilevel and multidimensional approach. The main hypothesis of the study is that there were similarities between Tunisia and Egypt, which caused the Arab Spring to begin from these two countries. In the method, the present study is a case-oriented historical comparative study. The research process has been completed in three phases. In the first stage, the similarities between the two countries of Tunisia and Egypt were extracted. In the second stage, the causal relationship of the similarities extracted between Tunisia and Egypt was described in the form of nine variables, with the conditions of the development and occurrence of the Arab Spring. In the third phase, there was a general explanation of the conditions of the Arab Spring development, and it was shown why the Arab Spring started from Tunisia and Egypt
