SOAS Research Online

Abstract

In this thesis, the role of non-competitive multi-party legislative elections in Mubarak's Egypt is examined. The personalised authoritarian system of rule which was established in Egypt after Nasser and the other Free Officers took power in 1952, is assessed in order to illustrate how it has been preserved for over four decades, not simply as a result of the immense formal powers which Nasser vested in the Presidency, but also as a result of the disparate clientelist strategies adopted by Nasser and his successors, Sadat and Mubarak. Clientelist tactics which further contribute towards inhibiting the development of formal political groupings and thus the possibility of successful challenges to the system of personal authoritarian rule. The role of non-competitive multi-party legislative elections in Mubarak's Egypt, is subsequently examined in this context. Namely as mechanism intended to further hinder the development of political groupings through the reaffirming and expanding of the clientelist structure of dependency and control linking central government to those on the periphery.