[Special Feature] The Lessons for Democracy in Egypt: moderation beyond reason ( Political Change and Migration from the Middle East) [Special Feature]

Abstract

I . Introduction II. Outlines of the Inclusion-Moderation Hypothesis III. An Alternative: Decentring the Rational Subject IV. Public Service and Cooperation in Egypt V . Conclusion

Egyptian politics in the past decade has provided many lessons for democracy. The path towards moderation is supposed to signal a shift from radicalism to the acceptance of the status quo. However, contemporary Egypt has often been ruled by authoritarian regimes of different ideological colours from socialist to neo-liberal. In this milieu, the anti-systemic agenda of political and socials actor need not be construed as ‘radical’ in the sense of a rejection of democratic values, activity and institutions. Islamists can and do embark on a process of political learning in the acquisition of norms such as moderation and cooperation without travelling on a linear sequence from radical to moderate. I argue in this article that Egyptian Islamists display commitments to political activism based on a local cultural repertoire. y discussion of the norms of moderation and cooperation among Islamists, past and current members of the Muslim Brotherhood [MB], is divided into three sections. Section one outlines the inclusion-moderation hypothesis and its overemphasis on the rational actor who weighs the costs and benefits for ideological and tactical moderation. The second section proposes to decentre the rational actor and offers an alternative for interpreting politics in meaningful cultural repertoires and situating agency in a context. The final section applies the insights of the previous section to the example of activism of former and current MB members in Egypt between 2011 and 2013 with reference to the past context of Islamist political activity. Diverse informal and formal modes of politics pursued by Islamists in this period were accompanied by a proliferation of political parties based on an ethos of public service, conflicting opinions on the relationship between the MB and political parties, and cooperation with other actors