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Panelists on Egypt: Arab World's First Democracy?
Five experts on democracy and Middle Eastern politics discussed Egypt's uprising at a panel at SIPA – "The Egyptian Transition in Context."
Alfred C. Stepan, Professor of Government and former Dean of SIPA, noted that Egypt's political upheaval is extraordinarily significant because no Arab country is currently considered a democracy.
"What we've just seen is one of the most amazing civil society actions I've ever seen," he said.
Panelists compared and contrasted the situation in Egypt to the fall of communism in Eastern Europe in 1989, the transition from military rule to democracy in Indonesia, and the "color revolutions" in parts of the former Soviet Union over the past decade.
The discussion was organized on March 8 by Columbia University's Committee on Global Thought. The panel included Alfred Stepan, Mirjam Künkler, Timothy Frye, and Mona El-Ghobashy. The moderator was Michael Doyle, Harold Brown Professor of U.S. Foreign and Security Policy at SIPA, Columbia Law School, and the Department of Political Science.
Follow the conversation and SIPA on Twitter @sipaatcolumbia.
Tim Shenk, March 9, 2011