(2020) No 8, Issue 2  

Political Changes in Egyptian State Formation and Its Effect on the State-Civil Society Relations

Md Mufassir RASHID | Taufiq-E-FARUQUE 

Pages: 48-59

Abstract

From the Mamluk Empire to British rule, Egypt had gone through political changes in its pursuit of state formation; even after independence, the process didn’t stop. Independent Egypt has always been a military-dominated state. When this authoritative domination came in touch with globalization, people started to cherish their dream of Democratization. This also led Egypt to witness its own ‘Arab Spring’. For a little time, Egypt has enjoyed its democracy but again with the coming of Sisi in power, military domination again became visible. At the same time, Civil society always struggled for its place and function in Egypt under authoritarian rulers, and the ruler’s tendency to keep his citizens in check created very rigid relations with the civil society. This paper aims to understand the political changes in state formation in Egypt, the inception of Civil society in Egypt, and the relation between state and civil society. This paper will also try to explain this ‘state-civil society’ relation from the theoretical point of view and would like to understand the reason behind such relations through analysing the political changes Egypt experience from the past century till today.

Keywords

State formation; State-Civil Society Relations; Egypt, political Changes; Arab Spring

References

Abdallah N (2008) Civil Society in Egypt: A Catalyst for Democratization?. The International Journal Of Not-For-Profit Law, 10(4), Available from: https://www.icnl.org/resources/research/ijnl/civil-society-in-egypt-a-catalyst-for-democratization (accessed 30 September 2020).

Chandhoke N (1995) State and Civil Society. New Delhi: Vintage Books.

Egypt: Law No. 84 of 2002 on Nongovernmental Organizations (2020) Refworld, Available from https://www.refworld.org/docid/5491907d4.html (accessed 15 September 2020).

El Medni B (2013) Civil Society and Democratic Transformation in Contemporary Egypt: Premise and Promises. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 3 (June), 14-26, Available from: https://www.ijhssnet.com/journals/Vol_3_No_12_Special_Issue_June_2013/2.pdf (accessed 22 September 2020).

Goldschmidt Jr A (2004) Modern Egypt (2nd ed.). Boulder: Westview Press.

Hassan H (2011) Civil Society in Egypt under the Mubarak Regime, Afro Asian Journal of Social Sciences, ISBN: 2229 – 5313. 2.

Herrold, C. (2015). NGO Policy in Pre- and Post-Mubarak Egypt: Effects on NGOs’ Roles in Democracy Promotion. Nonprofit Policy Forum, 7(2), pp. 189-212. Available from: doi:10.1515/npf-2014-0034(accessed 22 September 2020).

Ianchovichina E, Mottaghi L, and Devarajan S (2015) Inequality, uprisings, and conflict in the Arab World Washington, D.C.: World Bank Group. Available from: https://documents.worldbank.org/en/publication/documents-reports/documentdetail/469251468000587822/inequality-uprisings-and-conflict-in-the-arab-world (accessed 30 September 2020).

Kandil H (2012) Soldiers, Spies and Statesmen: Egypt’s Road to Revolt (London: Verso)

Kechichian J, And Nazimek J (1997) Challenges to the military in Egypt, 5(3), pp. 125–139. doi:10.1111/j.1475-4967.1997.tb00286.x (accessed 30 September 2020).

Khan Z (2015, January 5) Relationship between State and Civil Society, Available from:http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/political-science/relationship-between-state-and-civil-society/45261 (accessed 30 September 2020).

Khan Z (2015, January 5) Relationship between State and Civil Society, Available from: http://www.yourarticlelibrary.com/political-science/relationship-between-state-and-civil-society/45262  (accessed 30 September 2020).

Reuters (2018) From war room to boardroom: Military firms flourish in Sisi’s Egypt. Available from: https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/egypt-economy-military (accessed 30 September 2020)

Roll S (2015) Managing change: how Egypt’s military leadership shaped the transformation. Mediterranean Politics, 21(1), 23-43. Available from: doi: 10.1080/13629395.2015.1081452 (accessed 30 September 2020)

Sadek G (2017, June 7) Egypt: President Ratifies NGO Law. Available from: http://www.loc.gov/law/foreign-news/article/egypt-president-ratifies-ngo-law/ (accessed 30 September 2020)

Schick K (2020) Egypt’s Civil Society Is on Life Support. Foreign Policy, Available from: https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/12/13/egypts-civil-society-is-on-life-support/ (accessed 30 September 2020).

Stacher J (2012) Adaptable Autocrats: Regime Power in Egypt and Syria. (Stanford: Stanford University Press).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.