Egypt Government and Politics
Mycerinus (Menkure) and queen, Giza, ca. 2500 B.C.
THE MODERN EGYPTIAN STATE is the product of a historically
rooted political culture and of the state-building efforts of its
founding leaders, Gamal Abdul Nasser and Anwar as Sadat. Egypt has
been governed by powerful centralized rule since ancient times,
when the management of irrigated agriculture gave rise to the
pharaohs, absolute god-kings. This experience produced a propensity
toward authoritarian government that persisted into modern times.
Although the contemporary Egyptian state remained in essence
authoritarian, such rule was not accepted unconditionally. Its
legitimacy depended on adherence to certain public expectations.
Egypt's centuries of subordination to foreign rule, its long
struggle for independence, and its continuing dependency on other
countries generated a powerful nationalism that made national
legitimacy crucial to the acceptance of the authoritarian state.
Moreover, after the Arab invasion in the seventh century A.D., many
expected the state to rule on behalf of the true faith and
community and according to Islamic norms of justice; as a result,
the state sought to legitimize itself in Islamic terms. Finally, in
more recent years, the spread of political consciousness put rulers
under growing pressure to accommodate demands for participation.
The 1952 Revolution against the traditional monarchy, led by
Gamal Abdul Nasser's group of nationalist-reformist Free Officers,
gave birth to the contemporary republic. Nasser forged the new
state, suppressing the rudiments of pluralism and creating a
president-dominated, military-led authoritarian-bureaucratic regime
with a single party and a subordinated parliament, press, and
judiciary. Nasser's charismatic leadership and the populist
achievements of the 1952 Revolution--particularly land reform,
social welfare, and a nationalist foreign policy--legitimized the
new regime. Nasser gave the state a broader base of support than it
had hitherto enjoyed, a base that embraced a populist coalition of
the army, the bureaucracy, the middle class, and the masses.
Nasser's successor, Anwar as Sadat, adapted the state to a
"post-populist" era. The major vulnerabilities of the Nasser regime
were its lack of strong support among the Egyptian landed and
business classes and, after the 1967 defeat by Israel, its
alienation from the United States, the superpower whose support was
needed to resolve the conflict with Israel. Although Sadat assumed
power as Nasser's vice president and was a veteran of the
revolution, he soon reoriented the policies of the state to
reconcile it with the need for support from the Egyptian middle
class and for a good relationship with the United States. While
retaining the essential structures of the Nasserist state, he
carried out a limited political liberalization and an economic and
diplomatic
infitah
(opening or open door; see Glossary) to
the West. This shifted the state's base of support from reliance on
Nasser's populist coalition to a reliance on the landed and
business classes internally and an American alliance externally.
The political system remained essentially authoritarian but with a
greater tolerance of political pluralism than under Nasser; thus,
parliament, opposition parties, interest groups, and the press all
enjoyed greater, though still limited, freedom.
Husni Mubarak, Sadat's vice-president, inherited power on the
basis of constitutional legitimacy at Sadat's death. He
consolidated Sadat's limited political liberalization and
maintained the major lines of Sadat's policies while trying to
overcome some of their excesses and costs.
As revolutionary legitimacy was eclipsed by the passage of
time, the legal powers enshrined in the Constitution of 1971 became
a more important source of legitimacy. The Constitution, a
descendant of the 1956 constitution drafted under Nasser, largely
reinforced authoritarian traditions. It established a mixed
presidential-parliamentary-cabinet system, but the president is
constitutionally the center of power. The president is supreme
commander, declares war, concludes treaties, proposes and vetoes
legislation, and may rule through decree under emergency powers
that have been regularly delegated by parliament. He appoints the
prime minister and the cabinet, which may issue "decisions" having
the force of law. Under the Constitution, the People's Assembly has
the power to legislate and to nominate the president, and other
branches of government are responsible to the assembly. But it has
never effectively exercised these constitutional checks on the
executive.
Data as of December 1990
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