Obstacles to Democratic Goals of Social Movements: A Case Study of Egypt’s Post Arab Spring

Lila Wael Raouf 
Student, Indiana University 

Ms. Raouf starts out by posing the question, “Why do social movements sometimes not reach their original goals of democracy?” She notes that her review of existing literature highlights the military and the political culture of a state as two major obstacles of social movements in reaching their democratic goals.  Ms. Raouf chooses to focus on events in Egypt in the past several years, starting with the 2011 Egyptian revolution, as Egypt is country in which the military has played, and continues to play, an important role. She puts that uprising in a historical context, going back to the Free Officer’s Movement of 1952. 

Recorded: May 1, 2014