4. Egyptian Political Transformations Since Independence

Over the course of the last three decades, Egypt has experienced a number of democratic episodes that made it appear that the country was moving towards a potential process of democratization. For the first time since the revolutionary regime of Nasser had abolished party politics and banned the establishment of political parties in 1953, the regime of Anwar Sadat permitted their return in 1977. The same year also witnessed the holding of Egypt’s first parliamentary elections since 1952. Greater openness followed with the 1984 parliamentary elections, as more opposition political parties were allowed to participate in elections, including the Muslim Brotherhood, which had until this reform been a banned political movement. Moreover, with the global advance of the ‘third wave’ of democratization in the early 1990s, there was even greater optimism about genuine democratization in Egypt.