Non -Violent Revolution As A Means Of Democratic Change In Africa

Non -Violent Revolution As A Means Of Democratic Change In Africa

Chapter One

Preface

Background of the study

The history of the 20th century is full of exemplifications that demonstrate that violence resistance against unjust power systems, tyrants or external occupation is likely to induce farther violence as was seen for illustration, in the Russian and Chinese revolutions and decolonization wars in Africa and Asia( Alexander, 2010). But it has also been characterized by numerous important peaceful struggles; some of these are extensively knowne.g. the Gandhian freedom struggles in lndia, Martin Luther king Jr’s civil rights juggernauts in the United States among others. Although the power of peaceful resistance does feel weak and hamstrung in the face of accentuation power asymmetries, it has proven to be a veritably strategic tool in the hand of marginalized communities to requital structural imbalances and claim right of justice and tone- determination( Hassan, 2011).

Unnaturally the events that began in the morning of 2011 in the Arab world were unknown in history. In the words of Oviasogie( 2012) there was mass public kick that swept through the region with attendant effect for the future.

The demonstration transferred down long serving chairpersons out of their countries who prior to also saw themselves as manifest fates or God ordained right to rule. The government and administrations in the regions previous to Arab spring were a salad of rulers that viewed any other centre as competition. continuity was the hall mark of the administrations. For case, the Al- beach governed Saudi Arabia since 1932, Sultan Assad family reigned in Syria since 1970, and Qaddati ruled Libya since 1969, Mubarak since 1981 and Ali Abdullah Sallah ruled in Yemen Arab democracy in 1978 and again as the President of Unified Yemen in 1990 to mention just a many cases of life( Sorenson, 2010 Anderson, 2009). These potent men kept their administrations by embracing patron age, the violation of mortal right, suppression by state security agents among other mediums. The Arab spring according to Maogoto and Coleman( 2011) is an illustration of the pitfall of centralism.

In Egypt, the story wasn’t different, Egypt before the Arab spring was in a deepmulti-dimensional extremity( Shorbagy, 2009), the nature of popular practices in Egypt had assumed different confines. The constitution of ultramodern Egypt has always given the chairman virtual monopoly over the decision making process, devoting thirty 30 papers 15 to Presidential birthrights. Bassem( 2012) viewed number of democracy embracing Arab illiberalism similar as Syria and Egypt regularly hold choices and these aren’t completely multiparty system. Most importantly they don’t allow citizens to choose between lots of different campaigners for presidential choices in addition to loose practice with the choices. These are the nature of meddled popular practice in Egypt until 2011 when Egyptian decided to take the bull by the cornucopia by engaging innon-violent revolution aimed at getting Hosni mubarak out of office.

In malignancy the licit and moral demands of Egyptian protesters, they resolved not to be satisfied until justice had come the mark in exalting popular values and changes in Egypt. Prior to the below script, Mubarak had ahead been reelected by maturity votes in a vote for consecutive terms on four occasions in 1987, 1993, 1999, and 2005. The vote in itself and its results are questionable. No bone could run against the chairman due to a restriction in the Egyptian constitution in which the People’s Assembly played the main part in taking the chairman.

still, after increased domestic and transnational pressure for popular reform in Egypt, Mubarak asked the Parliament on 26 February 2005 to amend the constitution to allowmulti-candidate presidential election by September 2005. preliminarily, Mubarak got his position by having himself nominated by congress, also verified without opposition in a vote, but electoral institutions and security outfit remain under the control of the chairman.

After Mubarrak’sre-election in 2005, several political groups both in the left and right blazoned their sharp opposition to the heritage power. These political groups were some of the major opposition parties that filled campaigners to contend with Mubarrak in the 2005 Presidential election. These are New Wafd Party, Tomorrow Party, Solidarity Party, Democratic Union Party, Umma Party, National Conciliation Party, Egypt 2000 Party, Constitution Party and Egyptian Arab Socialist Party. Sharp( 2005) noted that the election which was listed for 7th September, 2005 involved mass apparel conditioning. specially, before 2011, Egyptians especially Muslim Brotherhood has been nursing the wrathfulness of the 2005 outfitted presidential choices. The worsening part of it’s the barring of Muslim brotherhood from querying any election in Egypt. The Muslim brotherhood is considered the largest Islamic group in Egypt. Sharp( 2005) maintained that Egypt’s largest Islamic group, the Muslim brotherhood wasn’t permitted to stand campaigners for 2005 choices because the association was banned by government which prohibits political parties with stated persuasions docket from querying election.

The Egyptian presidential election held in 7 September 2005 was largely outfitted in favour of Hosni Mubarrak. The Egyptians were nursing the wrathfulness before being moved to engage innon-violent kick movement with the successful ousting of President Ben. Ali of Tunisia by Tunisia protesters. Added to the issue of electoral apparel were the issue of deep political, profitable and social problems and the absence of reform in the name of consolidating power and authority.

The kick by Egyptians over these abnormities signifies giant strides in the history of Egypt. It awakened the civil societies that had been dormant for a long period of time and gestured the birth of political knowledge and to this effect, this study aims at examining thenon-violent revolution in Egypt and the attendant popular changes in Africa.

Statement of the problem

Popular governance envisages that those in the commanding heights of the frugality like our leaders must strive to insure that those essential life requirements must be made available to the peoples. This isn’t so with the people of Egypt, rather what we see are mortal societies wearing community features manifested in corruption, bad road difficulty in transportation, lack of good drinking water, outfitted election, power failures, severance, poor health installations, general poverty, shy accommodation among others.

The abecedarian question, is how could a governance change be assured thereby bringing an end to this autocratic and rough governance. principally two seminaries of study surfaced with different views on how to insure governance changes, the Realistic academy and the Strategic academy of study. The Realistic academy argued that the stylish way to bring about change to an autocratic governance is through violent revolution. Scholars attributed to this view are Rogan( 2011), Dankiract( 1990), Nwabueze( 1993). To this group of scholars, the ruler outdoors a lot power and the only way to oust him from office will be through violent revolution. On the other side of this ideological peak, the Strategic academy of study is of the view that the stylish way to insure a governance change in an autocratic division is throughnon-violent revolution. benefactions ofnon-violent scholars similar as Arthur Romano( 2011), Greene sharp( 1973), Greene sharp( 2005), Greene sharp( 2011) Hand Judith( 2010), Henry David Thoreau( 1848), Luther King Jr( 1967) among others have verified thatnon-violent demonstration remains the only way of making government change its programs when citizens feel unhealthy over similar programs. These scholars forefelt a time whennon-violent revolution would be geared towards a governance change entirely as was the case in Egypt. Generally, it’s notable that, Egypt during the reign of Hosni Mubarrak was characterized with poor public profitable performance, high position of corruption, retirement, rising cost of food, governance misbehaviours and a lost of faith in the electoral system( Sorenson and Mazo 2011). This rained thenon-violent revolution aimed at bringing about popular change in Egypt. specially, the Egyptian revolution wasn’t of despotism or suppression, it was that of the problem of personalization of power. In other words, the revolution in Egypt had political, moral and profitable antecedents as similar it was a moral, political and profitable bone . Moral in the sense that it fought against corruption, political as in the hunt for political freedom, the rule of law and respect for mortal rights and profitable freedom in that the citizens want to have a stake in the wealth and coffers of the country and also have the poverty position reduced. It was a revolution of rising prospects, the hunt for a better life, respect for mortal rights, reforms, political change, sovereignty and profitable independence from indigenous social lords. It was a struggle for political metamorphosis in the term that encapsulates the solicitations of the people. Generally, the demurrers were motivated or fueled by the hunt for democratization and expanded citizen’s participation in politics. It’s against this background that this study examines the extent to which thisnon-violent revolution has brought about popular changes in Egypt.

The problem of the study is thus articulated in the following exploration questions.

To what extent has the Egyptiannon-violent revolution brought about popular change in Egypt?

ii. Has the popular change enhanced the standard of living of the people of Egypt?

iii. How have the conditioning of the elites, the service and Islamic forces, against Hosni Mubarak contributed in icing popular change in Egypt?

Objects of the Study

The broad ideal of this study is to examine hownon-violent revolution by the people of Egypt contributed in achieving popular changes in Egypt. The specific objects are;

To examine the extent to which the Egyptiannon-violent revolution brought about popular changes in Egypt.

ii. To ascertain if the popular changes enhanced the standard of living of people of Egypt.

iii. To determine how the conditioning of the elites, the service and Islamic forces against Hosni Mubarak contributed in icing popular changes in Egypt.

Exploration Hypotheses

The following suppositions were posited to guide the study

i. The Egyptiannon-violent revolution has brought about popular change in Egypt.

ii. The popular changes have unnaturally enhanced norms of living of the people of Egypt.

iii. The conditioning of elites, military and Islamic forces against Hosni Mubarak contributed basically in icing popular changes in Egypt.

Significance of the study

The study has both theoretical and empirical senses. Theoretically, the study contributes to the literature on revolution. It’ll open new outlook of knowledge on the subject, therefore furnishing concerned stakeholders occasion of understanding the unproductive factors of revolution, the establishment of an autocratic governance and medium führers use to lodge themselves in power.

Empirically, the study brings out the part of the civil societies in a successfulnon-violent revolution and seeks to enumerate rudiments that help in understanding that a popular division could be established. This is significant in the sense that it brings to uncloak factors that pull toward a kick or revolution within a country of study. Also the study is significant in that it attempts to proffer results towards working the problem of autocratic rule through a vibrant civil societies thereby leading to mass participation in politics.

Compass And Limitation Of The Study

The study concentrates onnon-violent revolution as a means of popular change in Africa with particular focus on Egypt. The study covers the period of 2011 which was the period that witnessed thenon-violent revolution by Egyptians against the dictatorial rule of Hosni Mubarak.

The exploration was constrained by lack of applicable editions at accoutrements of the subject matter, also sanctioned secretiveness of information which are empirically, scientifically and analytically precious to the exploration was a source of concern.

Time was also another constraint since academic work of this nature is time limited.

Operationalization of Terms

In every academic bid similar as this characterized by utmost magnitude and significance, words or groups of words are always espoused to help in the achievement of stated objects. In order to duly situation the exploration in right perspective, it’s indeed veritably important that words used in this exploration are explained. There are

Non-violent It means being peaceful, i.e. devoid of detriment, clashes, injuries and the likes.

Revolution- It means an insurrection aimed at exalting new pattern of governance in government.

Popular- The state of government being determined by maturity.

Change- Alter the pattern before now or shift from being pattern to a new system.