1. Parliament without Politics: The Effort to Consolidate Authoritarian Rule
- Author:
- Ann M. Lesch
- Publication Date:
- 02-2016
- Content Type:
- Book
- Institution:
- Foreign Policy Research Institute
- Abstract:
- General Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi, Egypt’s ruler since July 2013, brooks no dissent. Having “saved” Egypt from the Muslim Brothers, he has ruled by decree in the absence of a parliament, supported by a handpicked technocratic cabinet. His security apparatus muzzles the press, keeps dissident voices off-air, arrests secular as well as Islamist critics, and clamps down on civil society. He has built ten new prisons to accommodate the overflow, as political prisoners may now total 60,000.[1] As typical of military rulers, he announces grandiose projects – the new channel in the Suez Canal, the Dabaa nuclear power plant, million-unit agricultural and housing schemes, and a multi-billion dollar new capital city – without taking into consideration their cost, integrating them into long term plans, conducting comprehensive feasibility studies, or examining their social and environmental impact.
- Topic:
- Security, Civil Society, Islam, Politics, and Authoritarianism
- Political Geography:
- Egypt