Political Legitimacy Of The Egyptian Society In Transition

Legitimacy has become a core concept of contemporary Political Science and Sociology, the foundation and prerequisite for any political power’s existence, sustain, stability and development, and an issue which a political power must take it seriously. In the spring of2011, a severe unrest happened in the Middle East, leading to the collapse of several regimes. The fundamental reason for the mass turmoil in Egypt and other Arabic republics is that in these countries the governments have lost the political legitimacy.Explaining the great changes in Egypt should not be confined to the political unrest occurring during the three short years. Placed and observed it in a longer history, the regularity of political legitimacy’s operation and changes in the process of social transformation in Egypt during the two hundred years can be teased out, and its role and influence on the operation of political power system under different regimes can be understood deeply.This dissertation could be divided into seven parts, consisting of the introduction, five chapters and the conclusion. The structure and framework arrangements are as follows:The introduction provides the dissertation the research background, literature review, theoretical foundation, research methods and path of thinking in writing.Chapter one briefly introduces and analyzes the theories used in this dissertation. This chapter begins with analyzing the origin and the historic clues of the concepts of social transformation and legitimacy, makes comment on various academic debates about social transformation and political legitimacy problem, describes the author’s basic understanding to the two questions facing Egypt, thus lays a theoretical foundation and provides an analytic framework for the body of the dissertation.The following four chapters, chapter two to chapter five, as the body, specifically discuss political legitimacy problems facing Egypt at different historical stages of social transformation.These chapters, as the main parts of the dissertation, reflect the inherent logic in the arrangement. These chapters display Egyptian efforts in exploring the path of national liberation and revitalization in different periods since the very beginning of19th century, to put it in other words, to explore a road to a successful social transformation. In the final analysis, legitimacy is a matter of recognition then voluntary obedience to the power. The purpose of this dissertation is to explore the modern history of the Egyptian people’s recognition and obedience to the governments’choices of the roads of social transformation in different times. The failure of previous stage in politics, especially in the fight for national independence and the weakness in breaking the power monopoly and the conservatism in promoting economic and social development lead to the deep crisis at the end of the era, thus prompting Egypt to select a new path of development. For example, the decline of constitutionalism in Egypt paves the way for the wide practice Nasserism.Chapter six,"reflections on political legitimacy issues of Egypt in social transformation" is the conclusion of this dissertation. It serves as a summary to the body, arguing that social transformation is transitional process of a society from a traditional society to a modern society, a process of social modernization, and a systematic engineering in which many aspects are involved. This chapter analyzes the factors that influence the democratization process in Egypt, summarizes the characteristics and type of democratic practice in the Middle East Islamic countries, and discusses the relationship among development, reform (mainly referring to political democratization) and stability in the process of social transformation. Finally, this chapter makes a cautious outlook for the democratization in the Middle East Islamic countries.