THERE has been fire in the streets of Cairo, shouts and screams demanding reform, government thugs attempting to subdue protestors, and flags being flown in the name of liberty. Such is the current uprising in Egypt, which is part of a larger sweeping movement of protests throughout the Middle East. A legitimate question remains, however: Is Egypt ready for democracy? While the protests could lead to anarchic chaos, it seems more likely the movement will help Egyptians secure the democratic institutions they so desire.
The American Revolution is often labeled the "Conservative Revolution," not because it was conservative in a modern political sense but because it caused little disruption in the day-to-day lives of most Americans. After George Washington's victory at Yorktown, Americans continued to practice democratic forms of government and even continued a legal system based on English common law. Compare that with the French Revolution less than a decade afterward. On the surface, both revolutions shared similar ideals: liberty, equality and the end of tyranny. Unlike in America, however, where society and culture remained fundamentally the same, the French Revolution utterly remade French society.
While the English colonies wanted to secure sovereignty to maintain their political rights, France had to remake its entire society. The people of France, under an absolute monarchy, had no tradition of democracy to uphold and no history of rights to maintain. Revolutionaries tore down the ancient regime immediately and chaos ensued. Maximilien Robespierre presided over the Reign of Terror, during which thousands were beheaded for being "enemies of the Revolution." The random violence and paranoia eventually caused the people to turn their backs on and behead Robespierre. This ordeal caused many Frenchmen to lose confidence in democracy, thus opening the door to the rise of Napoleon and a century of strong pro-monarchy factions.
One of the major differences between the two revolutions was that America had a strong democratic tradition while France did not. France started over from scratch and, not being accustomed to democracy, let it go awry.
Will Egypt follow the same path as the bloody French Revolution? It might appear that the Egyptian revolts share a great deal in common with France. Frustrated by years of suppression and limited human rights, the activists' main goal is to force President Hosni Mubarak from power, just as the French attempted to end the regime of Louis XVI. The protests are also led in part by the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical faction often considered hostile to the West. It is not hard to make comparisons between the Brotherhood and the radical Committee of Public Safety led by Robespierre.
Digging deeper, however, reveals a different nature of the protests in Egypt.
For the most part, the recent protests have been peaceful, especially before government thugs attempted to force the protestors to stop. The protests also have been popular and widespread, involving citizens from all over Egypt. They have also been fairly secular, despite the Muslim Brotherhood's impact. Solidarity between Muslims and Christians is surprisingly high, as evidenced by the thousands of Egyptian Muslims who showed up at churches during the Coptic Christmas to protect Christians from radical Islamists by acting as human shields. Even the Muslim Brotherhood has been falling out of favor, with its popularity at around 20 percent and falling steadily.
There is still no definite prediction as to how the protests in Egypt may conclude. The evidence, however, does suggest that the Egyptian people are doing all they can to allow their country to ease into a new regime, rather than tearing the old one down and hoping something benevolent will materialize. If Egyptians continue on their current course, it seems likely that they will be able to install more democratic institutions into their government. Egypt may not have the democratic institutions that America had during its revolution, but the nature of the protests in Egypt illustrates a better understanding and a more moderate approach to obtaining democracy than the French Revolution.
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Nathan Jones' column appears Thursdays in The Cavalier Daily. He can be reached at n.jones@cavalierdaily.com.
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