Is the army on the right road to democratization, or is it risking what some call "restoration" of the authoritarian regime in a new form?.
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The internal affairs in Egypt, after the 25th of January uprising, have been in a state of political and social turmoil. Almost nothing has remained constant in Egypt for the past three years; positions have changed, alliances have changed, and the Egyptian people's overall view of things has changed, not necessarily to the better. Nevertheless, the question of whether the army is fit to rule Egypt under a democratic state remains the issue three years after what has been described as the biggest revolution in Egypt's modern history. However, is it right to assume that the army, as an entity, has been a uniform body acting out a certain agenda throughout that period, or is it that the army's position has changed since Mubarak's rule to the present day as a result of the changes in leadership?.
The first step in trying to find an answer to that question would be to trace the different positions of the army at every stage during that period. When the 25th of January uprisings erupted, the army basically did not show any signs of support to the Mubarak regime. And whether it was out of seeking personal interest or loyalty or dedication to the people, the army instead, chose a neutral position in support of the people's demands. As the demonstrations reached a boiling point, General Hussein Tantawi and General Omar Soliman pressured Mubarak to give in to the people's demands and step down, which he did, with great reluctance nevertheless, on the 11th of February 2011. After that, the country entered a transitional period where the supreme council of armed forces was to rule until the time that a democratic presidential election would be held, and it was this period that caused the first wave of change in the army's position.
Authoritarianism and its manifestations in Africa: It manifested in Ghana, Guinea and Congo. ... Congo lost control of its army, richest providence, bureaucracy and eventually its leader. Authoritarianism was a form of government with no democracy. ... Military regimes: goes hand in hand with authoritarianism. A military regime is when the military runs the state. ...
Why did the collapse of the communist regime in the Soviet Union have such a negative impact? ... The anti-Soviet revolution in 1991 shattered the authoritarian grasp of the Soviet Union's communist party. ... Gorbachev's reforms included glasnost (openness), democratization, and perestroika (economic restructuring). ... The armed forces were divided and disgraced; as a result, army officers were replaced because they were "politically suspect" (Mandelbaum 358). ... Democratization ended authority and the functioning of the Soviet economic system (Colton, Legvold 51). ...
Put differently, Chandran Kukathas claims, "we live in an age of democracy fetishism" and "global political phenomenon of 'democratization." That is, Democracy was hailed as the best form of government hence, an increasing process of democratization in many parts of the world especially in Africa; Army Generals traded their military fatigues for suits to contest elections as politicians in an unprecedented era of democracy. ... It is no surprise then, that the post- cold war era saw many states democratizing since like a towering lighthouse guiding emerging States; ...
At the end of The Great War, Germany had many restrictions towards armament, army. ... On the other hand, the Soviet Union wanted to gain time, to temporarily prevent a German invasion, as the Red Army had too few senior officers, many of them being executed at the orders of Stalin. ...
Isaiah Berlin, a political philosopher, said that the enemies of liberty were some philosophers (among them Rousseau) because they defended an authoritarian conception of freedom. ... The definition of absolute monarchy, is a kind of regime, where the monarch has all the power and where people cannot disobey. ... - Egypt: Egypt is a big country, counting a solid army, taking place in a crucial geostrategic area. Although the conflicts were bloody and I think it was necessary to go through those riots, it ended with presidential elections bringing more transparency and democratizat...
The ruling regime loses the revolution more often than the insurgents "win- it. ... Given that their lives were so bad before, many Chinese were more than willing to accept the stability offered to them by the Communists, even if it offered little or no more democratization than that under the KMT. ... At first, only the CCP and its Red Army were willing to fight the invaders. Along the same lines, Lowell Dittmer's "The Legacy of Mao Zedong- (1980) suggests that militarily, the Red Army grew stronger, while the Nationalist Army was always dogged by incompetence and ineffectiveness....
Rather, the student leaders had "limited and very moderate aims {they} sought not to overthrow the government or even to form an opposition party, but only to win some measure of autonomy for themselves-and perhaps to encourage a long-term process of democratization within the ruling Communist Party in accordance with the Party's own proclaimed Marxian principles: (Meisner 403). ...
