Abstract: According to the roadmap for political transformation announced in July 2013, Egypt's parliamentary elections should have taken place six months after the constitutional amendments. Yet, since then, they have been postponed several times. They are now scheduled for March and April 2015. Until recently, the regime has been reluctant to hold parliamentary elections, fearing an unruly parliament not dominated by a regime party, as in the past. In June and December 2014, the government enacted a new electoral law and an electoral district law, which will reduce the chances of political parties in general -and political opposition parties in particular- from gaining a substantive number of seats in parliament. By deliberately impeding political parties from playing an important role in parliament, the regime is just adding to its own volatility. Therefore, priority should be given to pushing for the inclusion of all political forces in the electoral process and the strengthening of poli

Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 195 countries and fifteen territories are used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.

An intimate account of the Arab Spring, and Egypt’s past and present, seen through the eyes of a wide range of Egyptians: political operators, archaeologists and garbage collectors; women, the queer community and migrants.

Presents historical, comparative, and theoretical perspectives on democratization and legislatures in the Arab world, supported by six case studies. The authors look at the distinctive features of democratization processes in the Arab world, discuss the ability of parliaments to provide linkages between government and citizens, and present a typology of Arab parliaments revolving around the variables of centrality and capacity. The second part of the text consists of case studies in legislative development in Lebanon, Morocco, Kuwait, Yemen, and Egypt. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

In a detailed analysis of the continued survival of authoritarian governments in the Arab world, this book uses Egypt as a case study to address the timely and complex issue of democratization in the Middle East. The author argues that their longevity is less to do with the strength of the regime, but more closely related to the divisions and weakness of opposition groupings.

As Mubarak's regime nearing its end becomes a strong possibility, many pressures, both foreign and domestic, are coming to bear on Egypt to bring democratic reforms to this struggling country. In The Mubarak Leadership and Future of Democracy in Egypt, Alaa Al-Din Arafat studies this new era and the obstacles that must be overcome.

In this rich and thought-provoking study, Noha el-Mikawy explores the changes that have been occurring in Egypt's political system over the past thirty years--three very important decades in the country's transition from authoritarian rule to democracy. By focussing on consensus-building as analytically central to the transition process, el-Mikawy has picked up an original and very fruitful vein in the theoretical debate about the politics of transition and democracy. Her account of the inner workings and ideological divisions among the country's major political parties provides a wealth of detail for the 1980s and early 1990s nowhere else to be found. This book is likely to make a breakthrough in the conspiracy of silence hitherto affecting the inclusion of the Egyptian experience as an empirical reference point in the theoretical literature of transition.