AR

Revolution against Revolution, Street against People, and the Counterrevolution

Volume |Issue 4| Sep 2013 |Research Papers and Policy Reports
DOI: Egypt Revolution Counterrevolution Street vs. People

Abstract

This study analyzes the path of Egypt’s January 25 Revolution and its missed opportunity for regime change. In making this case the paper begins by examining the early conflict between political parties, and the role of the former regime’s armed forces in lending legitimacy to different actors. The study also addresses the structure - or lack thereof - of the transitional phase, including the role of the Islamist movement, and the predicament that the Muslim Brotherhood faced while in power. Continuing to trace the path of the stymied revolution, this paper assesses the failures, in particular of the political parties that “inherited” the young revolutionary generation, to comprehend the meaning of the transitional phase. As such, it shows how these parties failed to make progress towards democracy, and to understand the role assigned to them immediately after the January events. The study reasserts the meaning of the terms “revolution” and “coup,” exposing the ongoing confusion around the characterization of what happened in the post-transition phase in July 2013. It also analyzes the efforts of counterrevolutionary forces to pit the “legitimacy of the street” against the “legitimacy of the people.” The paper finally comes to forecast the direction the Egyptian revolution might take, given the July 3rd ouster of Mohamed Morsi, and the events that followed.

Received:Revised:Accepted:
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Azmi Bishara
Azmi Bishara

Prominent Arab intellectual, political philosopher, and researcher with numerous books and academic publications on political thought, social theory and philosophy. As a scholar, his magnum opus is his two-part work Religion and Secularism in Historical Context. Part I, Religion and Religiosity was published in 2013, followed in 2015 by the two-volume Part II, Secularity and Secularization: The Intellectual Trajectory and Secularity and Theories of Secularization. His latest books are The Question of the State: Philosophy, Theory, and Context (2023) with a second volume titled The Arab State: Beginnings and Evolution (2024); and Palestine: Matters of Truth and Justice (2024), originally released in English in 2022 by Hurst Publishers in London, published concurrently with The Flood: The War on Palestine in Gaza (2024). Bishara’s publications in Arabic, some of which have become key references within their respective field, include Civil Society: A Critical Study (1996); From the Jewishness of the State to Sharon (2004); On The Arab Question: An Introduction to an Arab Democratic Manifesto (2007); To Be an Arab in Our Times (2009); On Revolution and Susceptibility to Revolution (2012); Religion and Secularism in Historical Context (in 3 vols., 2013, 2015); The Army and Political Power in the Arab Context: Theoretical Problems (2017); The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Daesh): A General Framework and Critical Contribution to Understanding the Phenomenon (2018); What is Populism? (2019); and  Democratic Transition and its Problems: Theoretical Lessons from Arab Experiences (2020).

His English publications include Sectarianism without Sects (Oxford University Press, 2021); On Salafism: Concepts and Contexts (Stanford University Press, 2022); ISIS: The March to Dystopia (I.B. Tauris, 2025); and his trilogy on the Arab revolutions in Tunisia, Egypt and Syria, published by I.B. Tauris, Understanding Revolutions: Opening Acts in Tunisia (2021); Egypt: Revolution, Failed Transition and Counter-Revolution (2022); and Syria 2011-2013: Revolution and Tyranny before the Mayhem (2023), in which he provides a rich theoretical analysis in addition to a comprehensive and lucid assessment of the revolutions in three Arab countries.

Bishara serves as the General Director of the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies (ACRPS) and the Chair of the Board of Trustees for the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies founded by the ACRPS.
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Siyasat Arabiya is a bi-monthly peer reviewed academic journal published by the Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies and the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, dedicated to political science, international relations, and strategic affairs.

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