Freedom in the World 2018
Freedom in the World 2018

Author: Freedom House

Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

Published: 2019-01-31

Total Pages: 1265

ISBN-13: 1538112035

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Freedom in the World, the Freedom House flagship survey whose findings have been published annually since 1972, is the standard-setting comparative assessment of global political rights and civil liberties. The survey ratings and narrative reports on 195 countries and fifteen territories are used by policymakers, the media, international corporations, civic activists, and human rights defenders to monitor trends in democracy and track improvements and setbacks in freedom worldwide. The Freedom in the World political rights and civil liberties ratings are determined through a multi-layered process of research and evaluation by a team of regional analysts and eminent scholars. The analysts used a broad range of sources of information, including foreign and domestic news reports, academic studies, nongovernmental organizations, think tanks, individual professional contacts, and visits to the region, in conducting their research. The methodology of the survey is derived in large measure from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and these standards are applied to all countries and territories, irrespective of geographical location, ethnic or religious composition, or level of economic development.

President Sisi's Delegative Authoritarianism
President Sisi's Delegative Authoritarianism

Author: Robert Springborg

Publisher:

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 16

ISBN-13:

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The "coup-volution" of 2011 removed President Mubarak but not his authoritarian regime, which is now guided by his successor, President Abd al Fattah al Sisi. Both autocrats, there are nevertheless important differences between these two presidents and their respective regimes. Sisi's tougher authoritarianism is analogous to the Latin American prototype of "delegative democracy," a stalled phase of democratic institution building in which voters delegate their authority to the president, who rules unconstrained by balance of institutional powers. The primary feature of what in the Egyptian case might better be termed "delegative authoritarianism," is the decision-making autonomy of the president, who perceives himself as the "embodiment of the nation and the main custodian and definer of its interests." This results in erratic, inconsistent and ineffective policymaking, which isolates the president yet more from institutions and political forces, while causing the entire polity to be suffused with a deep cynicism. Although the most probable scenario is that Sisi will continue for the foreseeable future as Egypt's delegative dictator, as a one-man band his regime is inherently unstable and prone to coups, coup-volutions and outright revolutions. Sisi's Egypt provides an ideal model for the country's foreign supporters of how civilian control of armed forces can render government more effective in the discharge of its duties, including providing security for its people, something which delegative authoritarianism will never accomplish.

The Struggle for Egypt
The Struggle for Egypt

Author: Steven A. Cook

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2011-10-07

Total Pages: 433

ISBN-13: 019992080X

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The recent revolution in Egypt has shaken the Arab world to its roots. The most populous Arab country and the historical center of Arab intellectual life, Egypt is a lynchpin of the US's Middle East strategy, receiving more aid than any nation except Israel. This is not the first time that the world and has turned its gaze to Egypt, however. A half century ago, Egypt under Nasser became the putative leader of the Arab world and a beacon for all developing nations. Yet in the decades prior to the 2011 revolution, it was ruled over by a sclerotic regime plagued by nepotism and corruption. During that time, its economy declined into near shambles, a severely overpopulated Cairo fell into disrepair, and it produced scores of violent Islamic extremists such as Ayman al-Zawahiri and Mohammed Atta. In this new and updated paperback edition of The Struggle for Egypt, Steven Cook--a Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations--explains how this parlous state of affairs came to be, why the revolution occurred, and where Egypt is headed now. A sweeping account of Egypt in the modern era, it incisively chronicles all of the nation's central historical episodes: the decline of British rule, the rise of Nasser and his quest to become a pan-Arab leader, Egypt's decision to make peace with Israel and ally with the United States, the assassination of Sadat, the emergence of the Muslim Brotherhood, and--finally--the demonstrations that convulsed Tahrir Square and overthrew an entrenched regime. And for the paperback edition, Cook has updated the book to include coverage of the recent political events in Egypt, including the election of the Muslim Brotherhood's Mohamed Morsi as President. Throughout Egypt's history, there has been an intense debate to define what Egypt is, what it stands for, and its relation to the world. Egyptians now have an opportunity to finally answer these questions. Doing so in a way that appeals to the vast majority of Egyptians, Cook notes, will be difficult but ultimately necessary if Egypt is to become an economically dynamic and politically vibrant society.

Neopatriarchy
Neopatriarchy

Author: Hisham Sharabi

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 1992-10-29

Total Pages: 213

ISBN-13: 0195359992

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Focusing on the region of the Arab world--comprising some two hundred million people and twenty-one sovereign states extending from the Atlantic to the Persian Gulf--this book develops a theory of social change that demystifies the setbacks this region has experienced on the road to transformation. Professor Sharabi pinpoints economic, political, social, and cultural changes in the last century that led the Arab world, as well as other developing countries, not to modernity but to neopatriarchy--a modernized form of patriarchy. He shows how authentic change was blocked and distorted forms and practices subsequently came to dominate all aspects of social existence and activity--among them militant religious fundamentalism, an ideology symptomatic of neopatriarchal culture. Presenting itself as the only valid option, Muslim fundamentalism now confronts the elements calling for secularism and democracy in a bitter battle whose outcome is likely to determine the future of the Arab world as well as that of other Muslim societies in Africa and Asia.

The New Authoritarians
The New Authoritarians

Author: David Renton

Publisher: Haymarket Books

Published: 2019-07-23

Total Pages: 239

ISBN-13: 1642590045

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The eighteen months between June 2016 and the end of 2017 saw the victory of Leave in Britain’s EU referendum, the election of Donald Trump as President of the United States, and unprecedented support for Marine Le Pen of the Front National in her campaign for the same office in France. Nearly a decade after the great financial crash, it is these figures and the alarmingly confident and radical version of right-wing politics they represent that have gained the initiative over a moribund center and a still weak left. But what exactly does this new reality represent? While some argue that we are hurtling towards fascism in a replay of the 1930s, and others insist there is little substantial change from “politics as usual,” Renton takes a different and more nuanced view. In country after country, under the clouds of economic austerity and post-9/11 Islamophobia, we have seen a convergence between traditional conservatives, the authoritarian far-right, and previously marginal fascists. The result is a new, still emergent, and deeply troubling form of right-wing radicalism, at once more moderate than classical fascism in its political strategy, yet indulgent of the racism of its most extreme components.

Rock the Casbah
Rock the Casbah

Author: Robin Wright

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 326

ISBN-13: 1439103178

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"With a new epilogue, The Morning After"--Cover.

Justice Interrupted
Justice Interrupted

Author: Elizabeth F. Thompson

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2013-04-15

Total Pages: 397

ISBN-13: 0674076192

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The Arab Spring uprisings of 2011 were often portrayed in the media as a dawn of democracy in the region. But the revolutionaries were—and saw themselves as—heirs to a centuries-long struggle for just government and the rule of law, a struggle obstructed by local elites as well as the interventions of foreign powers. Elizabeth F. Thompson uncovers the deep roots of liberal constitutionalism in the Middle East through the remarkable stories of those who fought against poverty, tyranny, and foreign rule. Fascinating, sometimes quixotic personalities come to light: Tanyus Shahin, the Lebanese blacksmith who founded a peasant republic in 1858; Halide Edib, the feminist novelist who played a prominent role in the 1908 Ottoman constitutional revolution; Ali Shariati, the history professor who helped ignite the 1979 Iranian Revolution; Wael Ghonim, the Google executive who rallied Egyptians to Tahrir Square in 2011, and many more. Their memoirs, speeches, and letters chart the complex lineage of political idealism, reform, and violence that informs today’s Middle East. Often depicted as inherently anti-democratic, Islam was integral to egalitarian movements that sought to correct imbalances of power and wealth wrought by the modern global economy—and by global war. Motivated by a memory of betrayal at the hands of the Great Powers after World War I and in the Cold War, today’s progressives assert a local tradition of liberal constitutionalism that has often been stifled but never extinguished.

Donald J. Trump
Donald J. Trump

Author: Conrad Black

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2018-05-14

Total Pages: 180

ISBN-13: 1621577880

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Conrad Black, bestselling author of Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom and Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full, turns his attention to his "friend" President Donald J. Trump and provides the most intriguing and significant analysis yet of Trump's political rise. Ambitious in intellectual scope, contrarian in many of its opinions, and admirably concise, this is surely set to be one of the most provocative political books you are likely to read this year.

International Human Rights
International Human Rights

Author: Jack Donnelly

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-06-01

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 0429561040

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Fully updated, the sixth edition of International Human Rights examines the ways in which states and other international actors have addressed human rights since the end of World War II. This unique textbook features substantial attention to theory, history, international and regional institutions, and the role of transnational actors in the protection and promotion of human rights. Its purpose is to explore the difficult and contentious politics of human rights, and how those political dimensions have been addressed at the national, regional, and especially international levels. Key features include: substantially revised throughout, including new material on LGBTQ rights in Africa, Indigenous peoples’ rights in Guatemala, the Rohingya crisis in Myanmar, and a new chapter on human rights and development; in-text features such as discussion questions, suggested readings, case studies, and "problems" to promote classroom discussion and in-depth examination of topics; concise yet clearly organised and comprehensive coverage of the topic. International Human Rights is essential reading for courses and modules in human rights, politics and international relations, law, criminal justice, sociology, social work, public administration, and international development.

World Report 2019
World Report 2019

Author: Human Rights Watch

Publisher: Seven Stories Press

Published: 2019-02-05

Total Pages: 847

ISBN-13: 1609808851

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The best country-by-country assessment of human rights. The human rights records of more than ninety countries and territories are put into perspective in Human Rights Watch's signature yearly report. Reflecting extensive investigative work undertaken by Human Rights Watch staff, in close partnership with domestic human rights activists, the annual World Report is an invaluable resource for journalists, diplomats, and citizens, and is a must-read for anyone interested in the fight to protect human rights in every corner of the globe.