Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

The Importance Of Choice: Political Intermediaries And Democratization In Egypt After The Arab Spring, Matthew Lacouture

Student Research Symposium

Is post-revolution Egypt demonstrably different from the ancien régime? Where and between whom is political competition currently taking place? In the aggregative conception, democracy requires the presence of substantive political choice, differentiated through 'robust' competition between intermediaries – most often political parties – that serve to effectively aggregate and articulate political preferences. This produces an observable and genuine link between public preferences and government policies. In Egypt, the lack of a coheren and viable alternative to the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) – itself an amalgamation of conflicting and particularistic interests – has deprived the people of any …