Egypt’s new authoritarianism from an institutionalist perspective: formal-informal interactions before and after the Egyptian revolution

ABSTRACT

Utilizing an institutionalist approach, this paper traces the historical transitions of formal-informal interactions in the Egyptian political system before and after the 2011 Revolution. I argue that formal-informal interactions moved from Complementary during the first two decades of Mubarak’s rule, to Competing in his last decade, then back to Complementary under Sisi. Each transition was motivated by a critical juncture. The first transition was driven by Mubarak’s desire to bequeath power to his son, Gamal, while the second was motivated by the collapse of his regime in 2011. Each transition was marked by differing means. Mubarak used electoral politics to manage formal-informal relations, while the current regime under Sisi is heavily reliant on coercion.

Acknowledgment

Open Access funding provided by the Qatar National Library.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

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¹⁴ Hutchcroft, ‘Centralization and decentralization in administration and politics’.

¹⁵ Ibid.

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²⁴ Helmke & Levitsky, Informal institutions and comparative politics.

²⁵ Ibid.

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³¹ Raymond A. Hinnebusch, ‘Egypt under Sadat: elites, power structure, and political change in a post-populist state.’ Social problems 28, no. 4 (1981): 442–464.

³² Ibid.

³³ Nadia Ramsis Farah, Egypt’s Political Economy: Power Relations in Development (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 2009), 113; and Hazem Kandil, Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen: Egypt’s Road to Revolt (Verso Trade, 2014), 297–8.

³⁴ Iliya Harik, ‘The Single Party as a Subordinate Movement: The Case of Egypt,’ World Politics 26, no. 1 (1973): 80–105; Iliya Harik, ‘Mobilization Policy and Political Change in Rural Egypt,’ in Rural Politics and Social Change in the Middle East, ed. Richard Antoun and Iliya Harik (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1972), 287–314, 290.

³⁵ Ayubi, Bureaucracy and Politics in Contemporary Egypt, 441.

³⁶ Abul-Magd, Militarizing the Nation, 86.

³⁷ Kandil, Soldiers, Spies, and Statesmen, 298; and Robert Springborg, Mubarak’s Egypt: Fragmentation of the Political Order (London & Boulder: Westview Press, 1989), 155.

³⁸ Hisham Aidi, Redeploying the state: Corporatism, Neoliberalism, and Coalition Politics (London, Springer, 2008), 78; and Fahmy, The Politics of Egypt, 61–2.

³⁹ Fahmy, The Politics of Egypt, 62.

⁴⁰ Lisa Blaydes, Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010).

⁴¹ Springborg, Mubarak’s Egypt, 44.

⁴² Ibid., 39.

⁴³ Springborg, Patrimonialism and Policy Making in Egypt, 160; and Hani Awad, The Dilemma of Authoritarian Local Governance in Egypt (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2022).

⁴⁴ Blaydes, Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt.

⁴⁵ Ibid.

⁴⁶ Ibid. 56, 76.

⁴⁷ Samer Soliman, The Autumn of Dictatorship: Fiscal crisis and political change in Egypt under Mubarak (California: Stanford University Press, 2011), 127.

⁴⁸ Ibid. 97.

⁴⁹ Ibid.

⁵⁰ Joshua Stacher, Adaptable Autocrats: Regime Power in Egypt and Syria (California: Stanford University Press, 2012), 99–100.

⁵¹ ‘The largest movement in the history of the Ministry of the Interior: the termination of the service of 750 brigades and police brigades’, Al-Masry Al-Youm, July 11, 2011, https://www.almasryalyoum.com/news/details/143430, accessed August 20, 2021. Compare with the comprehensive movement conducted by the Minister of Interior, Major General Mohamed Ibrahim in the government of Hisham Qandil under Morsi in July 2012, which took place without any interference from the elected president or his prime minister. Morsi gave an unjustified blind trust to the Minister of the Interior, and later to his Defence Minister Abdel Fattah Sisi. ‘Egyptian Interior Minister: Morsi approved police movement without change’, Al-Quds Al-Arabi, July 29, 2012, https://bit.ly/3uaf1Df (accessed August 15, 2021).

⁵² Ahmed Maulana, ‘Political Security Services after the January 2011 Revolution,’ Al-Bousala, June 8, 2020, https://bit.ly/2XPMzdL (accessed: September 25, 2021).

⁵³ Official Gazette 16, April 21, 2011; 25, June 23, 2011; 25, June 23, 2011 36, September 8, 2011; 46, November 17, 2011; 45, November 10, 2011; January 19, 2012; 12, March 22, 2012; 19, May 10, 2012.

⁵⁴ Official Gazette, 24, 14 June 2012.

⁵⁵ Amy Austin Holmes and Kevin Koehler, ‘Myths of military defection in Egypt and Tunisia,’ Mediterranean Politics 25, no. 1 (2020): 45–70.

⁵⁶ Omar Ashour, From Bad Cop to Good Cop: The Challenge of Security Sector Reform in Egypt. Brookings Institution, 2012, https://www.brookings.edu/research/from-bad-cop-to-good-cop-the-challenge-of-security-sector-reform-in-egypt/, (accessed on August 19, 2021). Yezid Sayigh, ‘Missed Opportunity: The Politics of Police Reform in Egypt and Tunisia,’ Carnegie Middle East Center, March 2015, https://carnegie-mec.org/2015/03/17/missed-opportunity-politics-of-police-reform-in-egypt-and-tunisia-pub-59391, (accessed: August 21, 2021).

⁵⁷ Stephan Roll, ‘Managing change: how Egypt’s military leadership shaped the transformation,’ Mediterranean Politics 21, no. 1 (2016): 23–43.

⁵⁸ Amy Holmes, Coups and Revolutions: Mass Mobilization, the Egyptian Military, and the United States from Mubarak to Sisi (Oxford: Oxford: Oxford University Press), 144.

⁵⁹ Khalil Al-Anani, ‘Upended path: The rise and fall of Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood.’ The Middle East Journal 69, no. 4 (2015): 527–543, 535.

⁶⁰ Azmi Bishara, Egypt Revolution, Failed Transition and Counter-Revolution (New York: Bloomsbury, 2022).

⁶¹ Stacher, Waterlemon Democracy, 56–57.

⁶² Alexander Kazamias, ‘From Popular Revolution to Semi-Democracy’ in Revolutionary Egypt, op.cit., 112–133, 127.

⁶³ Bernard Rougier and Stéphane Lacroix, Egypt’s Revolutions: Politics, Religion, and Social Movements (Hampshire and New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2016), 19–40, 29.

⁶⁴ Official Gazette, 4, 26 January 2017.

⁶⁵ The data are from the Official Gazette during the rule of Abdel Fattah Sisi, from 3 June 2014 to 28 February 2020. All decisions of a routine nature have been excluded. These data are also limited to presidential decisions and do not include law decrees, cabinet decisions and ministerial decisions Governor’s decisions, all of which are important.

⁶⁶ Rutherford, Egypt’s New Authoritarianism under Sisi. 185.

⁶⁷ Ibid.

⁶⁸ Hossam Bahgat, ‘Anatomy of an election,’ Mada Masr, 14 March 2016, available online at: https://www.madamasr.com/en/2016/03/14/feature/politics/anatomy-of-an-election/

⁶⁹ ‘Giza House race sheds light on Egypt’s shifting political machinery,’ Mada Masr, 26 October 2020.

⁷⁰ ‘Another sham election highlights Egypt’s problems The country’s rulers are making a mess of politics and business,’, The Economist, 22 October 2020.

⁷¹ ‘The cost of playing monopoly: How the Nation’s Future Party has caused rifts among parties in House elections’, Mada Masr, October 1, 2020, https://madamasr.com/en/2020/10/01/feature/politics/the-cost-of-playing-monopoly-how-the-nations-future-party-has-caused-rifts-among-parties-in-house-elections/

⁷² ‘Egypt: Rare protests met with unlawful force and mass arrests’, Amnesty International, 2 October 2020, available online at: https://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2020/10/egypt-rare-protests-met-with-unlawful-force-and-mass-arrests/

⁷³ Mohammad Yaghi, ‘Neoliberal reforms, protests, and enforced patron–client relations in Tunisia and Egypt,’ in Networks of Dependency: Clientelism and Patronage in the Middle East and North Africa, ed. L. R. de Elvira, & C. H. Schwarz (London: Routledge, 2018), 118–142.