New Constitutions for Turkey and Egypt Conflict and Consensus in Two Constitutional Traditions
Patrick Scharfe As different as the two countries are, Turkey and Egypt both find themselves undergoing a fundamental reassessment of their political systems. Most importantly, both countries confront the formidable task of re-writing their constitutions, even in the face of deep political divisions and distrust. The two countries have a history of successive constitutions, all of which thus far have had a legitimacy deficit. Today’s constitutional reform processes seek to remedy this deficit, although recent constitutional alterations made for this purpose have not, however, brought about the desired stability or legitimacy. This year, two constitutional committees have been at work…