A Study Of Authoritarianism's Transformation And Democratization In Egypt Since 1952

Since the revolution of 23 July 1952, the personal authoritarian rule system in Egypt was established under President Nasser and then formed a kind of development model with Egyptian characteristics in politics and economics. It is very slowly and stagnant or stalled that the transition process from authoritarian to democratization which began in 1970' by President Sadat and then by President Mubarak, because there are very complicated relations among the state, society and Islamism, the three main political actors in contemporary Egypt.This dissertation is to investigate the process and progressiveness of these three actors in the formation of authoritarianism on the one, and to evaluate their effects and significance to the Egyptian democratization on the other. It is from the angle of the view of political civilization's intercourse in theory and depends on multi-disciplines intercourse of history, political science, religions and sociology in method.This dissertation includes seven parts. In the introduction, I mainly present the issues and objects will to be solved in the article, review relevant achievements, give the aims and meanings of the study, and state the framework of analysis, the writing methods and the innovation in the dissertation.In Chapter 1, from the angle of the intercourse and affection between the history and the present, I trace the Egypt's early modernization and the process that Egypt was affiliated to the modern-world-system. This chapter also analyzes the colonialism legacy and its four aftereffects to Egypt in 20^th century.Chapter 2 provides the factors which result in establishment of the authoritarian regime, gives the structure of the state and its characteristics, and expatiates on the transformation of the economic mode with the economic development strategy. Islamism is one of the most important actors in the Egypt political arena. The fundamentalists challenge the authoritarianism state and its elite's roles in institution, for example, the moderate Muslim Brothers on the one hand, and in ideology on the other, for the Islam Centrism or "wasatiyya" and Islamic Constitutionalism. These are the subjects of Chapter 3.Chapter 4 examines the role of the society for the liberalization in the framework of sate-society. I mainly focus on the political pluralism by analysis of political parties, civil society and women's political participant. One point demonstrated is the regime to control and to restrict the activities of political parties, civil society and women's participant more than to liberate them.Chapter 5 investigates the history of the People's Assembly and president election in Egypt since 1976, I discuss the main three actors how to run for the political power in competition and the articles which the regime amends the permanence constitution in 1971, their goal is the change not only of the political order but also of the game rule.Reassessing the main themes discussed in the dissertation, the conclusion argues that the transformation of the Egypt authoritarianism in three aspects. Firstly, compared with the other Middle East countries, the authoritarianism regime will reform the political system from up to down; Secondly, it can be seen two kinds of relationships between the secular state and the Islamism, the Islamists confront the state but not always do it; Lastly, the countries' modernization requires the political stability and then political stability calls for the authoritarian rule, but the authoritarianism has stalled the development, this is a paradox by cycle. The future is not nearly as bleak as the past, but it still needs time and time to realize democratization in Egypt.