I chose a post from one of the very first weeks of class. I had posed a question asking about if a state of emergency could be declared democratic; and after having rewritten my first paper I have some new insight to this blog post. The original is as follows:
In light of Egypt’s President Morsi declaring a State of Emergency in Egypt I thought this would be a good time to discuss the undemocratic nature of this act. Under a State of Emergency the President/Prime Minister has the ability to limit constitutional rights and freedoms guaranteed to citizens in a democracy. Many cities in Egypt– such as Port Said, Ismalia and Suez– are all under a curfew, and the Egyptian Cabinet wrote a draft law to allow the army to participate in policing and arresting of defiant civilians. Amnesty International condemned this ‘excessive use of force’ as unconstitutional.
With this temporary suspension of civilian rights, and fast-tracked legislature can a country in a State of Emergency maintain its democratic composure and characteristics? Or is Egypt still a democracy because President Morsi is calling for a national dialogue involving all political parties and would be willing to step down upon the calling of elections? Under a minimal or an adjective definition can we still describe Egypt at this time period as democratic?
After having re-read this blog post I find that the crux of my argument is contained in the last sentence. Having a minimal or maximum definition of democracy would allow democratic measures to capture factors such as ‘state of emergency’ or ‘unconstitutional use of force’. After extensive research of PRC and Polity IV datasets and their corresponding indicators, I believe that PRC and Polity IV would not label Egypt during this period as democratic. Polity IV’s openness of recruitment tracks for pre and post election unconstitutional acts of the executive, such as that in Egypt. PRC’s algorithm questions if there is governmental force to opposition of policies or executive conduct which lead to a country being coded as semi-democratic. Based on these two datasets that invoke maximum definition of democracy, Egypt would rank low on the 10 point Polity IV democracy scale and be a semi-democracy on PRC. After incorporating these dataset measures I can answer many of the questions I asked (myself) in my original blog post on Egypt.
In light of Egypt’s President Morsi declaring a State of Emergency in Egypt I thought this would be a good time to discuss the undemocratic nature of this act in a country that has tumultuously attempted stable democratic reform after the removal of Mubarak. Under a State of Emergency the President/Prime Minister has the ability to limit constitutional rights and freedoms guaranteed to citizens in a democracy. The rationale behind a State of Emergency is for the leader to make hasty decisions without executive constraints in times of emergency–such as natural disasters or 9/11. However, many infamous leaders such as Indira Gandhi call a State of Emergency to circumvent political opposition or civilian protests. In these cases the leaders are suppressing freedom of assembly, freedom of organization and right to peaceful protest. This is the case in Egypt.
Many cities in Egypt– such as Port Said, Ismalia and Suez– are all placed under a curfew to curtail the possibility of protests and night assaults by defiant civilians. The Egyptian Cabinet wrote a draft law to allow the army to participate in policing and arresting of defiant civilians without approval or reflection by the judiciary. Amnesty International has condemned Egypt’s executives’ actions as unconstitutional due to the ‘excessive use of force’. With this temporary suspension of civilian rights, and fast-tracked legislature can a country in a State of Emergency maintain its democratic composure and characteristics?
Under a minimalist definition of democracy Egypt could still be classified as a democracy because President Morsi is calling for a national dialogue involving all political parties and would be willing to step down upon the calling of elections and his subsequent electoral defeat. Many democracy measures that are minimal in conception and operationalization ground their measurements in competition and participation in electoral matters. If Egypt was to call an election that allowed for ‘meaningful and extensive’ competition and inclusion of all public voters and social groups–despite this State of Emergency–Egypt could very well be labelled as a democracy. However on democracy measures that employ a broad definition of democracy and expand their measurements outside the realm of elections would test for Egypt’s unconstitutional use of force and suppression of basic political rights. PRC dataset would label Egypt as a semi-democracy due to their inhibition of basic political rights and the unconstrained actions of the executive. Polity IV would find similar findings and reduce Egypt’s ranking on its 10 point democracy scale. To conclude, States of Emergency done to warrant political protest, opposition and freedom of speech can be ruled as undemocratic.