Advertisement

Military Coup Proving To Be Uncertain Foundation For Democracy In Egypt

A lot of the anxiety I’ve seen about post-revolutionary Egypt has centered on the idea that in the rush to hold new elections liberal forces will be overwhelmed by the better-organized and more coherent Muslim Brotherhood. That seems sensible. Then again in any democratic country you expect there to be a large and successful socially conservative political party dedicated to local sociocultural majority. You have Republicans in the USA, Christian Democrats in Germany, and you’d expect one in Egypt.

What you don’t normal expect is for a democratic transition to be led by a military coup, which is more or less how the confrontation in Tahrir Square got resolved. Now we read that the military council running Egypt is engaging in censorship to silence its critics. That’s about what you’d expect from a military coup but not really what you’d expect from a democratic revolution.

Advertisement