Radical religious groups witnessed three phases of transformation in their contemporary history. They started with big jihadi organizations then were reduced to small cells until big organizations made a powerful comeback that was distinguished by the use of tactics that were quite different from those used by their predecessors in the 1970s.
One cannot imagine that the crisis of party-line commitment faced by Egyptian political parties can be tackled or resolved without dealing with a key structural factor related to the process of establishing political parties following the Egyptian revolution. This was the historic moment that has ever since deeply affected the Egyptian political parties with its complications, manifestations, impacts and echo. The moments of the emergence of the Egyptian revolution and the first days of the revolution in the following 18 days were basically epic moments given the variety and diversity of the backgrounds of citizens and participants and the consensus…
The role of civil society in achieving social justice has emerged with its establishment in the very beginning, even if it was only excluded to the charitable aspect. The core idea was to improve the most marginalized and poor categories, even if the charitable work is not enough in that context. Civil society has reached a certain degree of maturity with the Arab revolutions. It attempted to play a pivotal role in achieving objectives of revolutions that raised certain slogans when they emerged and social justice was in the heart of them either directly or through other slogans such as…
Judiciary is one of the main pillars of balance between the three authorities and it plays an important role in the democratic transformation process. It is no doubt that the Arab Spring made radical changes in this field that created an important chance to enhance independence and neutrality of judiciary. The Status quo in the Arab world is confusing, thus, it created different reactions either from the judiciary itself or from different political powers. From here comes the importance of studying the status of judiciary in Arab constitutional documents to have a clear understanding of changes that happened to judiciary…
The purpose of commissioning this poll was to offer all the political parties in Egypt some insight into the issues that most concern the public, the public’s opinion of parties as a whole, and what would be more likely to make them vote for particular candidates and parties.
Youth movements, that became very active during the transitional period and till now, are among the most important manifestations of new ideas of aiming at changing the rules of the political game after the January 25th revolution. This paper aims at analyzing work and activities of these youth movements and nature of challenges they face pursuing changing the rules of the political game after the revolution and to what extent they can replace these rules with new ones. First: New ideas and liberating the public space: Part of the youth chose to engage in civic activities and social movements that…
This paper was written for EuroMeSCo network for the full version: http://www.euromesco.net/images/papers/papersiemed20.pdf
It seemed that the Arab revolutions came at the backdrop of a somehow clear absence of the Left factions and forces at the level of action as well as at the level of political impact in the Arab street on the different causes and concerns of the citizens. Still, Leftist forces, old as well as other new ones, born from the womb of the conflict in the last years of the new millennium, have tried to play different roles in connecting with the waves of the Arab Spring and trying to reorganize their ranks and their political cards as players…
The youth of Egypt played a vital role in the January 25th revolution and were on the initial driving forces behind the movement. After the revolution, many of them decided to remain politicized and active. This paper attempts to track the activities of the youth in the political sphere following the uprising. It is important to note that January 25th was not the first time, in recent times at least, the youth took to the streets to have their voices heard. Significant participation of the youth was noted during the Palestinian Intifada in Egypt of 2000, the Kefaya Movement of…
By Mohamed Elagati (03/04/2013) Working Paper fride In the aftermath of Egypt’s revolution, controversies over foreign funding to Egyptian civil society organisations (CSO) have become even more politicised. This has resulted in the prosecution of a number of international and Egyptian NGO workers. Because CSOs are a critical part of the democratic transition, the Egyptian public needs to engage in a transparent debate over the role of foreign funding. As a part of that process, this paper, based on a series of meetings carried out with local stakeholders in Cairo, examines the framework and the perception of foreign funding to…
