Political opposition and authoritarian rule in Egypt [Elektronische Ressource] / Holger Albrecht

Holger Albrecht

Informations

• Publié par: eberhard_karls_universitat_tubingen
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2007
• Nombre de lectures: 35
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Holger Albrecht






Political Opposition and Authoritarian Rule in Egypt









Dissertation
Zur
Erlangung des akademischen Grades
Doktor der Sozialwissenschaften
in der Fakultät
für Sozial- und Verhaltenswissenschaften
der Eberhard-Karls Universität Tübingen













2008



Promotionserklärung


Hiermit erkläre ich, dass ich diese Dissertation nicht bereits früher als
Prüfungsarbeit bei einer akademischen oder staatlichen Prüfung verwendet habe
oder mit ihr oder einer anderen Dissertation bereits einen Promotionsversuch
unternommen habe.





Tübingen, 29. Oktober 2007 (Holger Albrecht)










Urheberschaftserklärung


Hiermit erkläre ich, dass ich diese Dissertation selbständig verfasst, nur die
angegebenen Quellen und Hilfsmittel benutzt und wörtlich oder inhaltlich
übernommene Stellen als solche gekennzeichnet habe.






Tübingen, 29. Oktober 2007 (Holger Albrecht)

Contents
Note on Transliteration 1
List of Abbreviations 2
Acknowledgements 3
Introduction 7
Chapter 1: The Authoritarian State in the Middle East 13
1.1. Authoritarian vs. Patrimonial Regimes 14
1.2. ‘Liberalized Authoritarianism’ Reconsidered 27
1.3. Regime Stability and the Dynamics of Authoritarian Power Maintenance 34
Chapter 2: Political Participation in the Middle East: Authoritarianism from
Below 41
2.1. Concept Traveling: Political Participation under Authoritarianism 41
2.2. Channels of Political Participation in the Middle East 49
2.3. Contentious Political Participation: The Civil Society Argument and Social
Movement Theory 59
Social Movement Theory 59
The Civil Society Argument 63
1
Chapter 3: Political Opposition under Authoritarianism 71
3.1. Towards a Concept of Political Opposition 72
3.2. The Systemic Context: Opposition under Democracy vs. Authoritarianism 79
3.3. Patterns of Opposition under Authoritarianism in the Middle East 89
The Representation Function 93
The Legitimacy Function 93
The Channeling Function 94
The Moderation Function 94
Chapter 4: Mapping the Landscape of Contentious Politics in Egypt 97
4.1. Challengers in Elections: The Opposition Party Cartel 97
4.2. The ‘Civil Society Business’ 111
4.3. Street Politics: The “Pocket Protest” of Kifaya and the Workers’ Movement 117
‘Kifaya’ – Enough of Mubarak! 118
An Emerging Workers’ Movement 125
4.4. The Islamist Movement 132
Chapter 5: Political Institutions in Egypt: Between Contention and Control 149
5.1. Parliament and Elections 150
5.2. Labor Unions, Professional Syndicates, and the ‘Dialogue Organizations’ 157
5.3. The Judiciary 166
5.4. Al-Azhar 170
Chapter 6: The Dynamics of Contentious Politics in Egypt 175
6.1. The Challenge towards the Egyptian Regime 179
6.2. The Support of Authoritarianism in Egypt 181
6.3. Struggles about Public Space 184
Bibliography 187

2 Note on Transliteration
In order to render the proceedings of this study more accessible to the non-Arabic
speaking reader, I have used, throughout the text, the spellings of Arabic names (of
persons, geographic locations, organizations) and terms (e.g. ulema, sunni, etc.) that
are commonly found in the English-speaking media and publications.



































1 List of Abbreviations
ACPSS Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies
ADNP Arab Democratic Nasserist Party
APEO Anti-Political Establishment Opposition
APHRA Arab Program for Human Rights Activists
ASU Arab Socialist Union
CC Court of Cassation
CCR Coordinating Committee for the Rights and Freedoms of the
Syndicates and Labor
CEDEJ Centre d’Études et de Documentation Économiques et Sociales
CIJLP Center for the Independence of the Judiciary and Legal Profession
CLAC Constitutional and Legislative Affairs Committee
CSPI Committee in Solidarity with the Palestinian Intifada
CSS Center for Socialist Studies
CTUWS Center for Trade Union and Worker Studies
EOHR Egyptian Organization for Human Rights
FSCP Free Social Constitutional Party
GFTU General Federation of Trade Unions
HMLC Hisham Mubarak Law Center
IKC Ibn Khaldoun Center
LCAC Legislative and Constitutional Affairs Committee
LCHR Land Center for Human Rights
LP Liberal Party
MBMuslim Brotherhood
MENA Middle East and North Africa
MP Member of Parliament
NCDWR National Committee for the Defense of Workers Rights
NCHR National Council on Human Rights
NFC National Front for Change
NGO Non-Governmental Organization
NDP National Democratic Party
NPUP National Progressive Unionist Party
PA People’s Assemply
PPC Political Parties Committee
PVA Private Voluntary Association
SAC Supreme Administrative Court
SCC Supreme Constitutional Court
SLP Socialist Labor Party
SJC Supreme Judicial Council
SMT Social Movement Theory
2 Acknowledgements
Not long ago, I was invited to a topping-out ceremony. Listening to my friend’s
acknowledgment of people who supported him in his house-building adventure that
took over two years to be accomplished, I was close to panic for three reasons:
Firstly, I am still living in a rented flat; secondly, my own ‘grand project,’ the results
of which have materialized in this study, spread over an embarrassingly long period
of almost five years; and thirdly, so many people have supported this project that
undue omissions are hardly avoidable.
What first comes to my mind is the place where I have lived in the past 14 years
and where this project came into being. After having worked for many years in the
Middle East Department at Tübingen’s Political Science Institute, in several positi-
ons during my graduate and post-graduate studies, my first thoughts go to the gui-
dance, trust, and patience that I was fortunate to receive from my PhD supervisor
Peter Pawelka. I am deeply indebted to him for giving me ample freedoms to deve-
lop my personal ideas, as bizarre as they may have sounded once in a while.
Among the Tübingen people who can, due to their useful comments, critique, and
encouragement, claim a major stake in this study, the collaboration with Oliver
Schlumberger stands out as particularly useful and impressive. Other colleagues and
students out of the Tübingen research seminar “Forschungsforum Moderner Orient”
and the Political Science Institute include André Bank, Rolf Frankenberger, Patricia
Graf, Roy Karadag, Markus Loewe, Debby Rice, Thomas Richter, Rolf Schwarz,
Irmtraud Seebold, and Thomas Stehnken. Some students who attended the seminars
that I had to teach deserve credit for having challenged me to the extent that I was
forced to think over some of my arguments; I will keep in mind, representing many
others, Julius Kirchenbauer, Kevin Köhler, Fritz Matthäus, Marion Siebold, and Ja-
na Warkotsch who joined me on a two-months long research mission to Cairo in
2005. Kevin Köhler’s support to this thesis as a research assistant is substantial and
it will be hard in the future to get around without his dedication and competence.
Accordingly, Kelly Neudorfer, by proof-reading the following chapters, spared me
from the embarrassing concession that English remains still somewhat cumbrous a
means of communication.
While Tübingen – and the above people who I will always associate with this nice
little Swabian town – owns by far the greatest share in the genesis of this PhD pro-
ject, I am grateful that I was given the chance to travel in order to learn more about
my subject. Traveling has had two main purposes: acquiring empirical knowledge
about the subject that I decided to write about; and spreading some ideas and hypo-
theses that came to my mind in the development of this PhD project with the aim of
receiving criticism and support from what is nicely dubbed the ‘academic communi-
ty’ (basically all those people who I met outside of Tübingen). As to the first purpo-
se, several research missions led me to Cairo where I approached numerous people
3 with the intention of conducting interviews and lured them into conversations that
proved immensely useful for my own understanding of the issue. Most of them are
listed in the bibliography at the end of this manuscript. I am greatly indebted to them
for sharing with me their knowledge about Egyptian politics. Among my ‘Cairo
connections,’ I am especially grateful, for various reasons, to Alexander Haridi,
Mohammed Farid Hassanein, Maye Kassem, Florian Kohstall, Emil Lieser, Ivesa
Lübben, Iman Mandour, Vicky Reichl, Ahmed Saif