Download or read book Egypt Spring a Rocky Road to Democracy written by Mohsen S Mahmoud and published by America Star Books. This book was released on 2013-03 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Egyptians started the 2011 revolution to topple a corrupt regime. Many brave souls fought and died in order to bring new dawn and guarantee people's freedom and guarantee democracy and the rule of law. Two years after the landmark January 25, 2011 revolution that toppled Hosni Mubarak from power, the political situation in Egypt has been marked-as much as anything-by divisiveness and polarization. The unity between all political forces that participated in the revolution, liberals and Islamists, broke down almost as soon as Mubarak was removed. The military controlled the country-to almost everyone's dissatisfaction-for over a year and half. The Islamists came to power at the end of June 2012 and now it is the Islamists and the largely secular forces in increasingly angry opposition. Egypt's economy is in very bad shape, prices are much higher than before the revolution, the Egyptian pound is under tremendous pressure, political bickering and fighting is at record high, and security has deteriorated. What went wrong and is there any hope for Egyptian democracy? Egypt Spring, a Rocky Road to Democracy addresses the Egypt Spring that started in January 2011, toppled Mubarak regimes and has been trying to build a new democratic system since then. The book will get into some details of the Egyptian political situation and the many mistakes, committed by all, that caused a very rocky road to democracy. Egypt Spring, a Rocky Road to Democracy addresses the role of education, social justice, and economical development in advancing democracy in Egypt. This book will address important steps needed badly to steer the way through robust and lasting democracy.

Download or read book The Arab Spring written by Jason Brownlee and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Several years after the Arab Spring began, democracy remains elusive in the Middle East. While Tunisia has made progress towards democracy, other countries that overthrew their rulers - Egypt, Yemen, and Libya - remain in authoritarianism and instability. This volume provides a foundational exploration of the Arab Spring's successes and failures.

Download or read book A Comparative Appraisal of Normative Power written by Ville Sinkkonen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2015-06-24 with total page 398 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A Comparative Appraisal of Normative Power Ville Sinkkonen constructs a three-pronged analytical framework for the analysis of normative power, a theoretical concept recently associated with studying the international role of the European Union. This toolkit allows him to compare the foreign policy conduct of the EU and the United States in the context of the January 25th, 2011 Revolution in Egypt along three dimensions: ‘norms and identity’, ‘means’ and ‘paradoxes’. These components permit an in-depth analysis of Western norm promotion in the midst of the upheaval, building on a large pool of source documents. The monograph broadens the remit of normative power through its empirical bent, comparative research set-up and focus on a swiftly unfolding revolution/transition complex. In the process, the prevalent discourse of the EU as a benign international actor is subjected to rigorous analytical scrutiny.

Download or read book Shock to the System written by Michael K. Miller and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-07-20 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How violent events and autocratic parties trigger democratic change How do democracies emerge? Shock to the System presents a novel theory of democratization that focuses on how events like coups, wars, and elections disrupt autocratic regimes and trigger democratic change. Employing the broadest qualitative and quantitative analyses of democratization to date, Michael Miller demonstrates that more than nine in ten transitions since 1800 occur in one of two ways: countries democratize following a major violent shock or an established ruling party democratizes through elections and regains power within democracy. This framework fundamentally reorients theories on democratization by showing that violent upheavals and the preservation of autocrats in power—events typically viewed as antithetical to democracy—are in fact central to its foundation. Through in-depth examinations of 139 democratic transitions, Miller shows how democratization frequently follows both domestic shocks (coups, civil wars, and assassinations) and international shocks (defeat in war and withdrawal of an autocratic hegemon) due to autocratic insecurity and openings for opposition actors. He also shows how transitions guided by ruling parties spring from their electoral confidence in democracy. Both contexts limit the power autocrats sacrifice by accepting democratization, smoothing along the transition. Miller provides new insights into democratization’s predictors, the limited gains from events like the Arab Spring, the best routes to democratization for long-term stability, and the future of global democracy. Disputing commonly held ideas about violent events and their effects on democracy, Shock to the System offers new perspectives on how regimes are transformed.

Download or read book Dictators and Democrats written by Stephan Haggard and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-09-06 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A rigorous and comprehensive account of recent democratic transitions around the world From the 1980s through the first decade of the twenty-first century, the spread of democracy across the developing and post-Communist worlds transformed the global political landscape. What drove these changes and what determined whether the emerging democracies would stabilize or revert to authoritarian rule? Dictators and Democrats takes a comprehensive look at the transitions to and from democracy in recent decades. Deploying both statistical and qualitative analysis, Stephen Haggard and Robert Kaufman engage with theories of democratic change and advocate approaches that emphasize political and institutional factors. While inequality has been a prominent explanation for democratic transitions, the authors argue that its role has been limited, and elites as well as masses can drive regime change. Examining seventy-eight cases of democratic transition and twenty-five reversions since 1980, Haggard and Kaufman show how differences in authoritarian regimes and organizational capabilities shape popular protest and elite initiatives in transitions to democracy, and how institutional weaknesses cause some democracies to fail. The determinants of democracy lie in the strength of existing institutions and the public's capacity to engage in collective action. There are multiple routes to democracy, but those growing out of mass mobilization may provide more checks on incumbents than those emerging from intra-elite bargains. Moving beyond well-known beliefs regarding regime changes, Dictators and Democrats explores the conditions under which transitions to democracy are likely to arise.

Download or read book The Arab Spring and Arab Thaw written by John Davis and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-04-01 with total page 253 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What were the unifying principles or strategies that governed the protest movements that swept the Middle East and North Africa in the spring of 2011? Who were the protestors and how did the different authoritarian regimes respond to them? How did regional and international institutions react to a region in turmoil? The Arab Spring and Arab Thaw; Unfinished Revolutions and the Quest for Democracy addresses these questions by examining a range of successful and unsuccessful protest strategies and counter revolutionary tactics employed by protestors and autocratic regimes. Contributors explore the reactions of the USA, EU and Arab League to events in the region and provide insight as to the gendered dimensions of the struggle along with the ethnic and tribal divisions that continue to impact the post-revolt period. By addressing these critical queries the book demonstrate how the Arab Spring has evolved into a protracted Arab Thaw that continues to profoundly affect regional and international politics.

Download or read book Interviews of Witnesses Before the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi Volume 5 written by House, Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terrorist Attack in Benghazi and published by Government Printing Office. This book was released on 2017-03 with total page 1668 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each of these eleven (11) print volumes contains the transcripts of Congressional investigative questioning and testimony of key personnel as part of the Select Committee on the Events Surrounding the 2012 Terror Attack in Benghazi's investigation into the attacks on U.S. diplomatic facilities in Benghazi in September 2012 and related matters pursuant to House Resolution 567 of the 113th Congress and House Resolution 5 of the 114th Congress. A transcribed interview before this committee is not bound by the rules of evidence. Each person was informed that the individual may consult with their counsel during the interview and an official court reporter transcribed each interview. Some of the information in this report is "blacked out" as it may pertain to classified information or for protection of the person providing the testimony. Each person is asked the same questions relating to the handling of the situation as it pertains to former Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton and her role surrounding these events. Lastly, many of the interviews refer to specific Exhibits or documents for which the person answering the questions is requested to provide background information. Each of these exhibits that serve as primary source and historical documents are included within each volume. Check out our International & Foreign Affairs resources collection here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/international-foreign-affairs Security, Defense and Law Enforcement collection is here: https://bookstore.gpo.gov/catalog/security-defense-law-enforcement

Download or read book Carbon Democracy written by Timothy Mitchell and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2013-06-25 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A brilliant, revisionist argument that places oil companies at the heart of 20th century history—and of the political and environmental crises we now face.” —Guardian Oil is a curse, it is often said, that condemns the countries producing it to an existence defined by war, corruption and enormous inequality. Carbon Democracy tells a more complex story, arguing that no nation escapes the political consequences of our collective dependence on oil. It shapes the body politic both in regions such as the Middle East, which rely upon revenues from oil production, and in the places that have the greatest demand for energy. Timothy Mitchell begins with the history of coal power to tell a radical new story about the rise of democracy. Coal was a source of energy so open to disruption that oligarchies in the West became vulnerable for the first time to mass demands for democracy. In the mid-twentieth century, however, the development of cheap and abundant energy from oil, most notably from the Middle East, offered a means to reduce this vulnerability to democratic pressures. The abundance of oil made it possible for the first time in history to reorganize political life around the management of something now called “the economy” and the promise of its infinite growth. The politics of the West became dependent on an undemocratic Middle East. In the twenty-first century, the oil-based forms of modern democratic politics have become unsustainable. Foreign intervention and military rule are faltering in the Middle East, while governments everywhere appear incapable of addressing the crises that threaten to end the age of carbon democracy—the disappearance of cheap energy and the carbon-fuelled collapse of the ecological order. In making the production of energy the central force shaping the democratic age, Carbon Democracy rethinks the history of energy, the politics of nature, the theory of democracy, and the place of the Middle East in our common world.

Download or read book Arab Spring in Egypt written by Bahgat Korany and published by American University in Cairo Press. This book was released on 2012-09-01 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning in Tunisia, and spreading to as many as seventeen Arab countries, the street protests of the 'Arab Spring' in 2011 empowered citizens and banished their fear of speaking out against governments. The Arab Spring belied Arab exceptionalism, widely assumed to be the natural state of stagnation in the Arab world amid global change and progress. The collapse in February 2011 of the regime in the region's most populous country, Egypt, led to key questions of why, how, and with what consequences did this occur? Inspired by the "contentious politics" school and Social Movement Theory, Arab Spring in Egypt addresses these issues, examining the reasons behind the collapse of Egypt's authoritarian regime; analyzing the group dynamics in Tahrir Square of various factions: labor, youth, Islamists, and women; describing economic and external issues and comparing Egypt's transition with that of Indonesia; and reflecting on the challenges of transition.

Download or read book Arab Spring written by I. William Zartman and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2015 with total page 494 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beginning in January 2011, the Arab world exploded in a vibrant demand for dignity, liberty, and achievable purpose in life, rising up against an image and tradition of arrogant, corrupt, unresponsive authoritarian rule. These previously unpublished, countryspecific case studies of the uprisings and their still unfolding political aftermaths identify patterns and courses of negotiation and explain why and how they occur. The contributors argue that in uprisings like the Arab Spring negotiation is "not just a 'nice' practice or a diplomatic exercise." Rather, it is a "dynamically multilevel" process involving individuals, groups, and states with continually shifting priorities--and with the prospect of violence always near. From that perspective, the essaysits analyze a range of issues and events--including civil disobedience and strikes, mass demonstrations and nonviolent protest, and peaceful negotiation and armed rebellion--and contextualize their findings within previous struggles, both within and outside the Middle East. The Arab countries discussed include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Syria, Tunisia, and Yemen. The Arab Spring uprisings are discussed in the context of rebellions in countries like South Africa and Serbia, while the Libyan uprising is also viewed in terms of the negotiations it provoked within NATO. Collectively, the essays analyze the challenges of uprisers and emerging governments in building a new state on the ruins of a liberated state; the negotiations that lead either to sustainable democracy or sectarian violence; and coalition building between former political and military adversaries. Contributors: Samir Aita (Monde Diplomatique), Alice Alunni (Durham University), Marc Anstey* (Nelson Mandela University), Abdelwahab ben Hafaiedh (MERC), Maarten Danckaert (European-Bahraini Organization for Human Rights), Heba Ezzat (Cairo University), Amy Hamblin (SAIS), Abdullah Hamidaddin (King's College), Fen Hampson* (Carleton University), Roel Meijer (Clingendael), Karim Mezran (Atlantic Council), Bessma Momani (Waterloo University), Samiraital Pres (Cercle des Economistes Arabes), Aly el Raggal (Cairo University), Hugh Roberts (ICG/Tufts University), Johannes Theiss (Collège d'Europe), Sinisa Vukovic (Leiden University), I. William Zartman* (SAIS-JHU). [* Indicates group members of the Processes of International Negotiation (PIN) Program at Clingendael, Netherland]

Download or read book Empowering Women after the Arab Spring written by Marwa Shalaby and published by Springer. This book was released on 2016-11-09 with total page 237 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With studies on the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Syria, Lebanon, Morocco and Tunisia, this collection presents a theoretical framework on the study of women's empowerment amid the transformations that have shaped the social and political fabrics of Arab societies.

Download or read book Democratisation in the European Neighbourhood written by Michael Emerson and published by CEPS. This book was released on 2005 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Approaches democratization of the European neighbourhood from two sides, first exploring developments in the states themselves and then examining what the European Union has been doing to promote the process.

Download or read book Hard Choices written by Hillary Rodham Clinton and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-06-10 with total page 907 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Hillary Rodham Clinton’s inside account of the crises, choices, and challenges she faced during her four years as America’s 67th Secretary of State, and how those experiences drive her view of the future. “All of us face hard choices in our lives,” Hillary Rodham Clinton writes at the start of this personal chronicle of years at the center of world events. “Life is about making such choices. Our choices and how we handle them shape the people we become.” In the aftermath of her 2008 presidential run, she expected to return to representing New York in the United States Senate. To her surprise, her former rival for the Democratic Party nomination, newly elected President Barack Obama, asked her to serve in his administration as Secretary of State. This memoir is the story of the four extraordinary and historic years that followed, and the hard choices that she and her colleagues confronted. Secretary Clinton and President Obama had to decide how to repair fractured alliances, wind down two wars, and address a global financial crisis. They faced a rising competitor in China, growing threats from Iran and North Korea, and revolutions across the Middle East. Along the way, they grappled with some of the toughest dilemmas of US foreign policy, especially the decision to send Americans into harm’s way, from Afghanistan to Libya to the hunt for Osama bin Laden. By the end of her tenure, Secretary Clinton had visited 112 countries, traveled nearly one million miles, and gained a truly global perspective on many of the major trends reshaping the landscape of the twenty-first century, from economic inequality to climate change to revolutions in energy, communications, and health. Drawing on conversations with numerous leaders and experts, Secretary Clinton offers her views on what it will take for the United States to compete and thrive in an interdependent world. She makes a passionate case for human rights and the full participation in society of women, youth, and LGBT people. An astute eyewitness to decades of social change, she distinguishes the trendlines from the headlines and describes the progress occurring throughout the world, day after day. Secretary Clinton’s descriptions of diplomatic conversations at the highest levels offer readers a master class in international relations, as does her analysis of how we can best use “smart power” to deliver security and prosperity in a rapidly changing world—one in which America remains the indispensable nation.

Download or read book Fractured Lands written by Scott Anderson and published by Anchor. This book was released on 2017-05-02 with total page 191 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Lawrence in Arabia, a piercing account of how the contemporary Arab world came to be riven by catastrophe since the 2003 United States invasion of Iraq. In 2011, a series of anti-government uprisings shook the Middle East and North Africa in what would become known as the Arab Spring. Few could predict that these convulsions, initially hailed in the West as a triumph of democracy, would give way to brutal civil war, the terrors of the Islamic State, and a global refugee crisis. But, as New York Times bestselling author Scott Anderson shows, the seeds of catastrophe had been sown long before. In this gripping account, Anderson examines the myriad complex causes of the region’s profound unraveling, tracing the ideological conflicts of the present to their origins in the United States invasion of Iraq in 2003 and beyond. From this investigation emerges a rare view into a land in upheaval through the eyes of six individuals—the matriarch of a dissident Egyptian family; a Libyan Air Force cadet with divided loyalties; a Kurdish physician from a prominent warrior clan; a Syrian university student caught in civil war; an Iraqi activist for women’s rights; and an Iraqi day laborer-turned-ISIS fighter. A probing and insightful work of reportage, Fractured Lands offers a penetrating portrait of the contemporary Arab world and brings the stunning realities of an unprecedented geopolitical tragedy into crystalline focus.

Download or read book Democracy Elections and Constitutionalism in Africa written by Charles M. Fombad and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-18 with total page 624 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The third wave of democracy that reached African shores at the end of the Cold War brought with it a dramatic decline from 1990 onwards in dictatorships, military regimes, one-party governments, and presidents for life. Multiparty democracy was at the core of the constitutional revolutions that swept through most of Africa in those watershed years. However, that wave is either losing momentum or receding - or being reversed in its entirety. This volume examines democracy and elections in Africa, a focus motivated by two concerns. First, after 30 years it is important to take stock of the state of constitutional democracy on the continent. The democratic gains of the 1990s and 2000s seem to be falling by the wayside, with the evidence mounting that regimes are concealing authoritarianism under the veneer of elections, doing so in an international context where populist regimes are on the rise and free and fair multiparty elections are consequently no longer a given. It is becoming a battle to protect and retain constitutional democracy. The second reason for this volume's focus on democracy and elections is that multiparty democracy is essential for the proper functioning of the state in addressing the major problems facing Africa - internal conflict, inequality and lack of development, and poor governance and corruption. The focus of this volume is thus on how competitive politics or multiparty democracy can be realized and how, through competition, such politics could lead to better policy and practice outcomes.

Download or read book The Fires of Spring written by Shelly Culbertson and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Turkey, Iraq, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, and Tunisia The “Arab Spring” all started when a young Tunisian fruit seller set himself on fire in protest of a government official confiscating his apples and slapping his face. The aftermath of that one personal protest grew to become the Middle East movement known as the Arab Spring—a wave of disparate events that included protests, revolutions, hopeful reform movements, and bloody civil wars. The Fires of Spring is the first book to bring the post-Arab Spring world to light in a holistic context. A narrative of author Shelly Culbertson’s journey through six countries of the Middle East, The Fires of Spring tells the story by weaving together a sense of place, insight about issues of our time, interviews with leaders, history, and personal stories. Culbertson navigates the nuances of street life and peers into ministries, mosques, and women’s worlds. She delves into what Arab Spring optimism was about, and at the same time sheds light on the pain and dysfunction that continues to plague parts of the region. The Fires of Spring blends reportage, travel memoir, and analysis in this complex and multifaceted portrait.

Download or read book Freedom in the World 2004 written by Aili Piano and published by Rowman & Littlefield. This book was released on 2004 with total page 756 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Freedom in the World contains both comparative ratings and written narratives and is now the standard reference work for measuring the progress and decline in political rights and civil liberties on a global basis.