Bullets over ballots: Islamist groups, the state and electoral violence in Egypt and Morocco

This article is concerned with state-sponsored electoral violence in liberalized autocracies. The first section of the paper identifies a number of variables that can help explain the decision calculus of authoritarian incumbents to deploy force against strong electoral challengers. The second section then examines these propositions with reference to Egypt and Morocco. Drawing on recent parliamentary elections in both countries the article questions why, despite facing the challenge of political Islam, the two regimes differed so markedly in their willingness to manipulate the polls by recourse to violence. Whilst the Egyptian authorities decided to abrogate all pretence of peaceful elections in favour of violent repression against the Muslim Brotherhood candidates and sympathizers, no such tactics were deployed by the ruling elite in Morocco. We suggest that three principal factors influenced the regimes' response to this electoral challenge: (1) the centrality of the elected institution to authoritarian survival; (2) the availability of alternative electioneering tools; and (3) the anticipated response of the international community. The article concludes by suggesting that in order to understand better when and how states deploy violence in elections, we need to focus on a more complex set of factors rather than simply on the electoral potency of key opposition challengers or the authoritarian nature of the state

The Saudi labyrinth : evaluating the current political opening

Amr Hamzaw

Opposition in Egypt: performance in the presidential election and prospects for the parliamentary elections

Amr Hamzaw

Egypt after the 2013 military coup: Law-making in service of the new authoritarianism

The military coup was staged in the summer of 2013. In the intervening period, Egypt’s ruling generals have succeeded in handcuffing the public space and bringing back fear as an everyday feature of life in a country that is still in dire straits. By various repressive measures, civilians have learned to fear the consequences of free expression and peaceful opposition. To this end as well, Egypt’s ruling generals have also adapted legal and legislative tools to persecute political enemies and eradicate the existence of autonomous civil society organizations. However, far less attention has been paid to the details surrounding the legal and legislative tools utilized by Egypt’s generals, and even less to the concerning implications these tools carry regarding notions of justice and the populace’s faith in the neutrality of public institutions. A thorough explanation and analysis are necessary to understand fully the functioning of the new authoritarianism. It is also of paramount importance to highlight the fact it is impossible to search for ways to restore a democratic transition in Egypt without a structured thinking about how to dismantle the legal and legislative framework of the new authoritarianism. </jats:p

From Dictatorship to Democracy

Political analyst Amr Hamzawy says that Egypt’s new challenge is to transform the “protesting citizen” into a “participating citizen

Between government and opposition: the case of the Yemeni congregation for reform

Amr Hamzaw