Egypt, Democracy, and Revolution: A Reappraisal
A Crown Seminar with Mona El-Ghobashy
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
A standard narrative about the 2011 revolution that ousted Egypt’s longtime president, Hosni Mubarak, is that it ended in tragic failure. Instead of compromising and collaborating, civilian factions bitterly fought one other, enabling the military to abort a fledgling democracy and install a brutal dictatorship. But what were politicians and activists fighting about? And how were other interest groups, such as bureaucrats, parliamentarians, and judges, decisive players in post-Mubarak politics? In this talk, based on her forthcoming book, Bread and Freedom: Egypt’s Revolutionary Situation, Mona El-Ghobashy will map out the political conflicts powering Egypt’s interregnum of 2011-2013. Coming to terms with what these struggles were about will further our understanding of both democratization and revolution.
Mona El-Ghobashy is a clinical assistant professor of liberal studies at New York University.
Youssef El Chazli, discussant, is a junior research fellow at the Crown Center.
Co-sponsored by the Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies program, Department of Politics, and the International and Global Studies program at Brandeis.