With the development of human society, civilization is incessantly progressive. One aspect of human civilization’s progress is political civilization. Democratic politics can be considered to be the representatives of political civilization. When people refer to the history of human progress, they find that human beings struggle to achieve this great goal and no one can stop the human desire for political freedom. In 2011, one more country took a step towards democracy. Egypt is in the ancient, sacred and conservative Middle East. Egyptians are cheering for their own political aspirations as they overthrew Mubarak’s dictatorship, and are gradually making efforts to establish a democratic and peaceful country.
Egypt was known as a totalitarian state. From Dickerson (2010), totalitarianism is a modern form of despotic rule in which the state undertakes to remake society according to an ideological design. Mubarak matched that definition and has ranked 20th on Parade Magazine's 2009 World's Worst Dictators list.
Even though Mubarak was said to be one of the World's Worst Dictators, he persisted in ruling the country in a totalitarian style. He attempted to remake society to produce his kingdom; in order to help himself and his family, he embezzled hundreds of millions of dollars. ABC News indicated that experts believed the personal wealth of Mubarak and his family was between US$40 billion and $70 billion.
Mubarak was a very powerful leader and let law become an arbitrary tool to govern people. Since 1981, Following Sadat's death, Mubarak became the fourth president of Egypt, and the chairman of the National Democratic Party (NDP). He was the longest serving Egyptian president and his term lasted 29 years. Hosni Mubarak and his N...
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...FRANCE 24. Retrieved March 17, 2012, from http://www.france24.com/en/20110125-egypt-braces-nationwide-protests
Michaels, J., & TODAY, U. (n.d.). Egypt protests focus on jobs, wages - USATODAY.com. News, Travel, Weather, Entertainment, Sports, Technology, U.S. & World - USATODAY.com. Retrieved March 17, 2012, from http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2011-03-18-egypt18_ST_N.htm
More of the World's Worst Dictators | Parade.com. (n.d.). PARADE Magazine | Parade.com. Retrieved March 16, 2012, from http://www.parade.com/dictators/2009/more-of-the-worlds-worst-dictators.html?index=10
Mubarak Family in Egypt Accumulated Wealth From His Days in Military - ABC News. (n.d.). ABCNews.com - Breaking News, Latest News & Top Video News - ABC News. Retrieved March 17, 2012, from http://abcnews.go.com/Business/egypt-mubarak-family-accumulated-wealth-days-military/story?id=12821073
Any study on Modern Egyptian history naturally begins with Nasser, Egypt’s first President after the Free Officers revolution in 1952. Nasser was the foremost proponent of pan-Arabism, an ideology that called for close ties between the Arab states, presumably under the leadership of Egypt, one of the most powerful states in the Middle East at the time. Compared to other states in the Arab World, Nasser’s Egypt was stable, militarily powerful, and independent of foreign influence. From this position of re...
Egypt has one of the longest histories of any nation in the world. Written history of Egypt dates back to about 5,000 years, the commencement of civilization. While there is divergence in relation to Early Egyptian times, it is said that Egypt came to be around 3200 B.C., during the reign of a king by the name of Menes and unified the northern and southern cities of Egypt into one government. In 1675 B.C., Egypt was invaded by the Hyksos, people from the east, bringing along the very first of chariots and horses ever to come across Egyptian soil. Approximately 175 years later in 1500 B.C., the Egyptians had gotten rid of the Hyksos and driven them out. In 1375 B.C., Amenhotep IV had become the king of Egypt. During his reign he eliminated the worship of Egyptian gods and initiated the idea of only worshipping one god. But after his death, his ideas were retired and old ways were reestablished. Egyptian supremacy then started to decline around 1000 B.C. Between 1000 B.C. and 332 B.C., Egypt was ruled by many such as the Libyans, Assyrians, Ethiopians, and Persians. In 640, Muslims conquered Egypt and founded the city of Cairo in 969 and deemed it as the capital of Egypt. For many centuries Egypt was ruled by Muslim caliphs. A prominent ruler of this period was Saladin, who battled the Christian Crusaders at the conclusion of the twelfth century. In 1798 Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt but was then forced to withdraw in 1801 Turkish and British armed forces. In 1805 Mohamed Ali began ruling Egypt till 1848 and great changed the country in terms of modernization and its military. During Mohamed’s conquest, he borrowed a lot of money from the French and British, which later resulted in Egypt’s coloniza...
Ridel, B, 'The real losers in Egypt's uprising', The Daily Best Online, 13 February 2011. Retrieved 19 March 2011< http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2011-02-13/al-qaeda-absent-in-hosni-mubaraks-fall-and-egyptian-revolution/>
In other words, many countries and their political regimes claim to be democracies and use this word in order to gain political favor and political power. Former President of Egypt, Gamal Abdel Nasser, promised his country fair elections and suggested that his regime was a democracy. However, during Nasser’s time in office, fair or true elections were never held. These actions resonate with a number of authoritarian leaders that utilize the social meaning of ‘democracy’ in order to reach a place in office. And while many countries strive to become democracies, it’s not always a possibility. The Arab Spring has involved many countries, throughout the middle east, vocalizing their desire to have a political democracy. But since the passing of these revolutions, there has yet to be a succes...
The Egyptian revolution was started like any other revolution; the people had a problem with the unfairness of the government. Hosni Mubarak had been in power for 30 years nearly half a lifetime of control. There were multiple attempts to remove him from power, but they were stopped with military force. Near the end of his rule he began to express excessive control of the politics of his people. Declaring that no religious associated groups would be able to hold any political power, with this law he eliminated his biggest rival, the Muslim Brotherhood. Up until 2005 Mubarak did not allow for anyone to run against him as president. He only had a vote for his approval to stay in office. With other opponents running he rigged the elections and
Although the people living in Egypt had houses, pets, crops, and jewelry nothing was theirs, the government or the pharaoh owned everything. I think that it seems unfair to the people that they couldn’t even own one measly thing. Being the pharaoh and a descendant of the god the pharaoh owned everything and practically owned all of ancient Egypt. Pharaoh...
The pharaoh had the most power of all humans in Ancient Egypt. He had many critical responsibilities. It was his duty to make laws and keep order. It was also his responsibility to prevent attacks from Egypt’s enemies and keeping the gods happy. The people believed that he was a god on earth.
Rejecting the unfair and cruel rule of their regime, the people and the animals started a revolution that helped shape their future later on. The idea of revolting against Mr. Jones was given by Old Major after he asked all the animals to gather in the barn. He talks about a new perspective about Mr. Jones, which led the animals to picture a better future and to be free from human exploitation. The animals revolted against Mr. Jones as a result of showing apathetic attitude towards the animals as he treated them without any care and consumed without produces. “We are given just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength.” Similarly, the people that started the Egyptian Revolution demanded the overthrow of the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, as a result of his unfair ruling for 30 years. He is now seen as a “Dictator”. According to ABC News, Mubarak got most of his money from military contracts when he was an air force officer. "The business ventures from his military and g...
The first government or régime to have absolute control over a whole nation was developed by the Ancient Egyptian civilization. It was the first ever government that was established in the history of the world. Ancient Egypt was ruled by a Pharaoh, a name given to the ruler of Ancient Egypt regardless of the gender, and ruled the Upper and Lower Egypt in both politics and religion. This resulted in the Pharaoh e...
The Arab Spring is an extremely prominent issue today. This refers to the series of protests and civil wars that have been occurring in the Arab World due to discontent with government, human rights violations, poverty, and other factors. Countries where this is an issue include Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Yemen, Bahrain, Syria, Algeria, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, and Sudan. One of the countries hit hardest by the revolution was Egypt.
As the Arab Spring enters its second year, major uprisings and revolts have occurred all over the Middle East, pushing for an end to the corrupt autocratic rule and an expansion of civil liberties and political rights. Most recently, images from Syria have emerged, depicting the government’s use of force to suppress the voice of its people. One might ask, “Is this the beginning of a revolution? Is the country on the path to democracy?” To assess this question and examine the future trends in the region, one must look back on the country’s somewhat tumultuous history, the relationship between the citizens and the state, and the political economy.
There have been enormous efforts to spread democracy as a political system throughout the world by the developed democratic countries and the international development organizations including the World Bank. By the late 1990s the United States alone spent over a half billion dollars to promote democratic expansion throughout the world (Diamond, 2003). These were done considering that the democratic system leads towards development. As a result in the late 20th century we saw a huge political transformation towards democracy. During the last few decades a huge number of countries adopted democracy as their political system. However, it retain a big question how far democracy is successful in bringing development of a country? At this stage, some people also criticizes the effort of democratization arguing that it is done without considering the context of a country, sometimes democracy is not ideal for all countries and it is an effort to extinct diversity of political system. In studying the literature regarding the debate, we found a paradoxical relationship between democracy and development. Some argue that democracy has failed to ensure expected outcomes in terms of development. While others confronted that democracy has a considerable impact on development. Another group of people argue that form of political system actually does not have any impact on development process. On the verge of these debates, some development institutions and academics throw light on why democracy is not working properly, and what measure should be taken to make it more successful in bringing effective development of developing countries. Consequently, this writing is an effort of revisiting the different views about impact of democra...
Egypt as a state; their politics are organized under a multi-party semi-presidential system, where the executive power is divided between the President and the Prime Minister. Egypt also holds regular multi-party parliamentary elections; which is separated by the Parliament of Egypt, The People’s Assembly, and the Consultative Council as described by...
Metz, H. C. (1990). Egypt: A Country Study. (Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, Ed.) Retrieved from Country Studies: http://countrystudies.us/egypt/15.htm
The current challenges of democracy around the world should prioritize each encounter that should be addressed through networks, global gatherings, and various activities. As a continuous concern, the progress of democracy discusses various strategies and activities. These various strategies and activities lead to lessons that are learned in advancing democracy, making democracy deliver, strengthening democratic fundamentals, and more current challenges. Democracy faces threats from every spectrum as the threats surge the need to reinforce democratic forces through aid and greater international solidarity. Each country reflects on a certain assessment towards the current status of democracy.