Leiden University Student Repository

Nasser, Salma (2022)

Fear in times of uncertainty: How fear led to the failure of Egypt’s democratic transition

Bachelor thesis | Politicologie (BSc)

Fear among other emotions plays an important role in shaping political outcomes, especially during periods of uncertainty. In this paper, ‘the politics of fear’ is taken as the theoretical basis and is explored through a case study of the democratic transition period in Egypt from 2011 to 2013. The aim is to investigate how fear led to the ultimate failure of this transition. This paper demonstrates that fear was experienced, instrumentalized and exacerbated by three main groups in Egypt during this period, the elite, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the leftists and seculars. Looking beyond Egypt, ‘the politics of fear’ can be used to explain other periods of political uncertainty in different contexts.

fear

democratic transition

democratization

political uncertainty

Egypt

MENA region

Muslim Brotherhood

Arab Spring

Author

Nasser, Salma

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Specialisation

International Relations and Organisations

Supervisors

Koehler, K.

ECTS Credits

20

Language

en