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The effect of electoral autocracy in Egypt's failed transition: a party politics perspective

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 May 2019

Valeria Resta Open the ORCID record for Valeria Resta [Opens in a new window]
Valeria Resta*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Sciences, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: valeria.resta@uniroma1.it
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Abstract

Although the failed democratic transition in Egypt following the Arab Spring is unanimously held as a poster child for the stubbornness of authoritarianism in the MENA region, its determinants remain disputed. Contributing to this debate, this article focuses on the noxious effects of past electoral authoritarianism on the transitional party system. More specifically, through quantitative text analysis, the article demonstrates that transitional parties’ agency is largely the by-product of the way in which political competition was structured under the previous electoral autocracy. On the one hand, the uneven structure of opportunity upholding previous rule is central to the lack of pluralism. On the other hand, the previous regime's practice of playing opposition actors against each other through identity politics is at the root of the absence of common ground among the aforementioned parties during the transition.

Keywords

Authoritarian resiliencedemocratizationEgyptLDApolitical partiestransition
Type
Research Article
Information
Italian Political Science Review / Rivista Italiana di Scienza Politica , Volume 49 , Special Issue 2: Autocracy Strikes Back: Authoritarian Resurgence in the Early 21st Century , July 2019 , pp. 157 - 173
Copyright
Copyright © Società Italiana di Scienza Politica 2019 

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