DEMOCRACY IN EGYPT: A PROPOSAL FOR RESEARCH
Background and Proposed Research Focus
The Egyptian Constitution was approved by referendum in September 1971. Since that time, Egypt engaged in an armed conflict with Israel (1973), signed a formal peace treaty with Israel (1979), experienced a presidential assassination (1981), and participated in the Gulf War against Iraq (1991). Since 1971, also, the Egyptian population has increased from somewhat over 30 million persons to approximately 55 million. Population growth has been so rapid that Egypt has remained one of the world's poorest countries in the context of per capita income.
Egypt has had two leaders since 1971 Anwar Sadat and Hosni Mubarak. Each of these leaders in their own way made attempts to democratize the Egyptian political environment.1 For reasons of both necessity and preference, however, each of these leaders often devoted greater attention to international relations than they have to the internal political environment of Egypt. Within the country's internal political environment, however, population and economic pressures, the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, and general frustration among the Egyptian population has fostered the growth of political extremism. The presence of political extremists within the Egyptian population, in turn, has caused it to be even more difficult for the Egyptian leadership to fully
1Raymond A. Hinnebusch, Egyptian Politics Under Sadat: The Post Populist Development of An Authoritarian Modernizing State (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1985), 223; Charles Tripp and Roger Owen, (Eds.), Egypt Under Mubarak (London: Routledge Publishers, 1989), 135.
implement political reform, regardless of the extent to which and form in which the leadership may wish to introduce such reform.
A research study is proposed that will examine the question: Is there real democracy in Egypt? The study will assess the extent...