The Military-Religion Relatjonship In Political Transition:A Comparative Study Between Turkey And Egypt

Turkey has been considered as a relatively successful model of the democratization among Islamic countries,where Islamist parties are able to participate in political life with official status.In 2011,so called "Arab Spring" opened the Pandora's box of democratization of Muslim world in the Middle East.As a great power in this region,the political fluctuation in Egypt would affect the political process of the neighboring countries.After Mubarak's authoritarian regime was ended,international community expected that Egypt could be democratized following the Turkey's model.However,the Islamic party,which came to stage through general election,was overthrown by military a year later.The democratization process in the Middle East has been seriously frustrated.The authoritarian regimes and pathways of political transformation are quite different,though Turkey and Egypt have familiar historical context.Especially the military and Islamic political forces as the biggest political oppositions are the protagonists in national political life and the mutual understanding and interaction between them are obviously different.The external pressure influenced the ideology and political stance of Islamic political forces.The intervention of the army helped with precaution against Islamic extremism and prevention national politics from islamization.The changes of social structures brought by the neo-liberal economy laid the foundation of the rise of Islamic political forces and made contributions to the development of political Islam movement.On the one hand,party and parliamentary provided islamists with legal political space,on the other hand,played a role of"filter" which excluded the factions that hold Islamic extremism position.