event description

Why was the fall of dictatorships after the Arab Spring (with its massive public protests) followed by Islamist parties that came to power through relatively democratic elections? Why did these Islamist parties call themselves democratic (in Egypt the Muslim Brotherhood translated to ‘Democratic Alliance for Egypt’)? What is the meaning of democracy in the MENA region and particularly in Egypt?

Dr. Assel Tutumlu, Academic Coordinator for the Executive Master in Development Policies and Practices (DPP) program for the Caucasus & Central Asia Region and Associate Professor in Political Science at Near East University in Northern Cyprus, will address these questions and more. She will argue that the understanding of democracy within these authoritarian regimes has been void of the liberal component. In other words, democracy was understood in substantive terms. By using discourse analysis and comparative methods, this talk will outline Mubarak’s understanding of justice in Egypt and compare it with the ideals of the Muslim Brotherhood. It will interpret two discourses through John Rawls’ distinctions between substantive and procedural justice in order to draw lessons for the scholarship on democratisation and for future authoritarian regime transitions in the MENA region.

Dr. Alaa Tartir, Research Associate at the Centre on Conflict, Development & Peacebuilding (CCCP) will chair and moderate the discussion.

Register here