The Role of Political Parties in the Future of Democracy in Egypt

After phenomena called the Islamic Awakening, Arab Spring and popular uprisings began spreading to Arab countries from the northwestern Africa to a few countries in the Middle East and south Persian Gulf, many questions were raised concerning the fate of the revolutions and the future of these countries’ peoples and governments notably concerns about democracy. Obviously a variety of parameters should be assessed in dealing with the future of democracy in the Arab countries particularly in Egypt. In other words, numerous factors including historical precedent, geography and economic resources, structure of the three branches of government, history of political parties, the role played by political parties from the Islamist to secular spectrum and the impact of parties on democratization need to be considered in such a study. In this paper, the authors seek to attain a reliable, albeit predictable conclusion afar from prejudice, taking into consideration latest political developments in Egypt.