Cholera, Crisis, and Collapse: The Role of Egypt's 1947 Cholera Epidemic in Political Disillusionment in the Liberal Experiment

Abstract

This thesis examines the 1947 Egyptian cholera epidemic and analyzes how the failures of the Nuqrashi government, established in 1946, combined with the political responses from the Muslim Brotherhood and the Wafd Party, fueled public disillusionment with Egypt's liberal experiment. The liberal experiment is a period lasting from 1922 to 1952 that represented a transition towards European models of governance and ideals. While the Muslim Brotherhood used the crisis to denounce British influence and the regime, the Wafd Party's inaction and hypocrisy further eroded trust in liberal leadership. Analysis of the cholera epidemic reveals the contradictions of the liberal experiment through which the legitimacy of the Egyptian state is brought into question. Using a theoretical framework derived from Max Weber's concept of state legitimacy and Timothy Mitchell's notion of techno-politics, this thesis studies how the colonial roots of Egypt's public health infrastructure failed to meet the needs of its population in the cholera epidemic. This thesis identifies a downward trend in three key dimensions of public health systems as it relates to state legitimacy: control over knowledge, equality of care, and public trust. This trend contributed to Egyptian citizens increasingly questioning state legitimacy as the liberal experiment progressed onwards to the 1952 Free Officers'Revolution. Primary sources include Arabic and English newspaper articles, government records, and political writings. Secondary sources include scholarly articles, papers, and books written of the epidemic, its background, and its aftermath. Ultimately, this thesis uses the cholera epidemic as a case study to understand how public health crises reveal deeper political instabilities within populations and serve to exacerbate existing public discontent with government.Plan II Honors Progra