Nathan J. Brown

Egypt's Failed Transition

Abstract:Egypt’s mass uprising of 2011 gave birth to tremendous hopes that a new era of democratic politics could be built in the Arab world. But the process of transition to a democracy was badly designed, providing strong incentives for the country’s diverse political actors to behave in ways that undermined democratic development. Compounding these political mistakes was a heavy authoritarian legacy of division, mistrust, and unaccountability. While elections were not the cause of Egypt’s political woes, voting only clarified and sometimes aggravated the growing fissures in the Egyptian body politic. And those divisions have not only sabotaged Egypt’s post-2011 democratic hopes but also have undermined the prospects for future democratic development.

Regimes Reinventing Themselves Constitutional Development in the Arab World

In the Arab world, most constitutional documents have been promulgated less by the nation assembled than by existing regimes seeking tools to enable them to face domestic and international challenges. Constitutions have been issued to address a varying range of concerns: international, domestic and internal to the state itself. This article traces the enabling aspects of Arab constitutions over the past century and a half, concentrating on the very recent past. In some ways, the past couple of decades have seen a definite (if limited) upsurge of interest in constitutionalism in the Arab world. Recent constitutional innovations have stressed regularization of authority, bounded democracy and a modest increase in the autonomy of some constitutional structures (especially courts and parliaments). Yet that change should not obscure an underlying continuity. For while the Arab world has joined the global trend toward greater interest in constitutional structures, the changes of the past few decades have not reversed the patterns of the past: constitutions remain politically enabling documents.

Brigands and State Building: The Invention of Banditry in Modern Egypt

A late nineteenth-century epidemic of banditry seems to have swept through the Egyptian countryside, at least according to the writings and actions of influential Egyptians at that time. Contemporary newspapers recounted daily episodes in which gangs composed of between six and sixty or seventy members raided large estates, robbed travelling merchants, and organized local protection rackets. The threat to public security drew the greatest attention in the decade following the British occupation of Egypt in 1882.

Reason, Interest, Rationality, and Passion in Constitution Drafting

Liberal constitutionalism is founded in part on a desire to build a polity on the basis of reason and the public interest. At its most ambitious, the result can verge on a prepolitical or even apolitical view of constitution writing. To be sure, most liberal constitutionalists have backed away from the extreme view by increasingly recognizing that passion and bargaining will inevitably play a role in constitution writing. But few have moved beyond grudging acceptance of passion and bargaining to active incorporation. In addition, the terms themselves are used in increasingly slippery ways. Yet while greater terminological precision is desirable and possible, it cannot overcome a key feature of constitution drafting: reason and interest are easily confused in practice as are passion and rationality. Even if reason and deliberation over the public interest could be distinguished from passion and private bargaining, they are unlikely to be able to deliver what is demanded of them. Constitutional politics differs from normal politics less in the role for rationality and the public interest and more in the means used and the number of actors with veto power. In such an environment, partisan interest and passion are not merely inevitable contaminants but essential elements.

The Precarious Life and Slow Death of the Mixed Courts of Egypt

Over the past century, most states of the Middle East have attempted to strengthen and centralize their legal systems, often following European models. Egypt undertook one of the first steps in that direction with its mixed-court system. These courts, which had jurisdiction in civil and commercial cases that involved a foreigner, however remotely, operated from 1876 until 1949. That this system could survive the political turmoil of those years, far outliving the circumstances which brought it into being, is remarkable.

A Boon or a Bane for Democracy

Abstract:What role do mainstream Islamist movements play in Arab politics? With their popular messages and broad social base, would their incorporation as normal political actors be the best hope for democratization or democracy’s bane? For too long, we have tried to answer such questions solely by speculating about the true intentions of the movements and their leaders. Islamists in the Arab world are increasingly asked about their true intentions. To hear them tell it, leaders of Islamist movements in the Arab world are democrats without democracy: they are firmly committed to the outcome of clean and fair electoral processes. It is rulers and regimes that should be pressed on their democratic commitments, not their oppositions.

The struggle over democracy in the Middle East : regional politics and external policies

1. Introduction Nathan J. Brown and Emad El-Din Shahin Part 1: The View From Outside: External Efforts at Democracy Promotion 2. New Wine in Old Bottles? American Efforts to Promote Democracy in the Arab World Nathan J. Brown and Amy Hawthorne 3. Democracy and Security in the Middle East Richard Youngs 4. The Fantasy of Arab Democracy without a Constituency Walid Kazziha 5. Democracy and Faith: The Continuum of Political Islam Azza Karam Part 2: Country Studies 6. Transformations in Eastern Europe and Lessons for the Middle East Shlomo Avineri 7. Democratic Transformation in Egypt: Controlled Reforms ... Frustrated Hopes Emad El-Din Shahin 8. The Myth of the Democratizing Monarchy Shadi Hamid 9. Democracy in Lebanon: The Primacy of the Sectarian System Bassel Salloukh 10. Democracy, Islam and Secularism in Turkey Ersin Kalaycioglu 11. Conclusion Nathan J. Brown and Emad El-Din Shahin

The transition: from Mubarak's fall to the 2014 presidential election

This Adelphi volume brings together senior scholars as well as rising analysts of Egypt to examine the tumultuous period from the January 2011 uprising against Hosni Mubarak, via the election and ouster of Muhammad Morsi, to the consolidation of presidential power under Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi by late 2015. The nine authors provide a sober, in-depth look at the countrys contested politics, institutional and political players, struggling economy, constant foreign policy and evolving security challenges. The nine chapters are written by Professor Nathan J. Brown, Professor Ellis Goldberg, Dr Zeinab Abul-Magd, Yasser El-Shimy, Michael Wahid Hanna, Dr H.A. Hellyer, Gamal Hassan, Hebatalla Taha and Mohamed El Dahshan.

Palestine: The Unseen Conflict over the Hidden Curriculum

The intensity of the international controversy over Palestinian textbooks has worked to mask a subtle domestic contest among Palestinians over the content of the curriculum and—even more subtly—over prevailing pedagogy. A coalition of educational reformers emerged in the 1990s that sought to develop a new sense of citizenship, a democratic ethos in daily life and a nationalist identity that, while solidly grounded in Palestinian society, was also pluralistic and based on tolerance. While the coalition did have some impact in the final analysis, the curriculum developed in the latter part of that decade, the textbooks written in the early 2000s and prevailing pedagogical practices generally failed to live up to that progressive vision. Since those textbooks were written, the debates among Palestinians have continued without leaving significant effects on the contents of the books.

Building the rule of law in the Arab world: Tunisia, Egypt, and Beyond, edited by Eva Bellin and Heidi E. Lane

The ostensible purposes of the contributors to Building the Rule of Law in the Arab World are twofold. First, general experts seek to summarize global experiences on how to build the rule of law. S...