Beck why egypt matters

As Ancient Egypt had no dedicated police force, the enforcement of its verdicts was based on their acceptance both by the parties being judged and the community in which the dispute or offence had arisen.

It was then up to the litigants to comply out of their own volition, or under the informal pressure of the community. The system seems to have been generally effective, although instances of offenders choosing to ignore community opinion are documented and it remains unclear if there was any effective way of punishing such people.

Such forms of conflict resolution remain commonplace in contemporary Egypt, in particular in rural areas where access to the urban centres of formal justice is almost entirely absent. Alongside the aforementioned local courts, the Ancient Egyptian state also relied on high officials, such as provincial governors, to use their personal discretion to judge cases brought before them by petitioners.

Law was not codified, although judgements were supposed to be in line with the overall theological conception of the universal order, Maat.

Naturally, each official could interpret this framework differently. Finally, the state had the capacity to convene extraordinary courts, comprising the most senior administrators in the land, to try the gravest offences such as serial tomb robbery or conspiracy to murder the Pharaoh.

Once again, there seems to have been no fixed procedure for the conduct of trials at this level, with the investigating officials having a high degree of freedom in deciding how to proceed. Torture was standard practice, often applied to witnesses and suspects alike, and convicted criminals could face severe punishments like impalement or severing of the nose and ears. Thus, levels of brutality and arbitrary action by officials were typically higher in cases tried by courts with heavy state involvement.

These features of Ancient Egyptian legal process appear to have notable parallels in contemporary Egypt, where levels of police brutality and popular mistrust in the formal court system remain high.

The legacy of extended foreign rule has complicated matters further, as modern Egyptian law is a mix of pre-Islamic and Muslim legal traditions over which a western-style constitution and court system have been superimposed as a result of first the Napoleonic incursion and subsequently the British protectorate. This formal legal system is not only complex, but also inherently unstable — Egypt has had three constitutions in the last six years.

It is therefore perhaps unsurprising that for many Egyptians, legal recourse to the state organs is a last resort, and there is a preference for resolving disputes through informal local channels wherever possible.

This phenomenon is also augmented by differences in legal philosophy: while local justice, both in antiquity and now, focusses on flexible, creative and concrete forms of redress aiming to satisfy as many real people as possible, centralized state justice aims to enforce abstract law which may in practice satisfy nobody. Consequently, informal justice remains as popular as ever. Closely connected to the gulf between formal and informal justice is the dual nature of Egyptian local governance.

In Ancient Egypt, local governors were appointed by the Pharaoh to preside over administrative districts, primarily overseeing taxation and keeping the peace. However, people could also form local entities such as the qenbet -courts discussed above, whose function went beyond the purely legal domain. These bodies allowed communities to come together and talk about pressing matters, developing solutions through discussion.

Concerns could then either be acted on by the community itself, or, if deemed appropriate, individuals could petition the Pharaonic representative for redress of grievances. By the later 2 nd millennium BCE, workers in the employ of the state also began forming localized bodies for the purpose of negotiating their pay with government officials — indeed, the oldest recorded case of industrial action comes from Deir el-Medina, a tomb-building site in southern Egypt. This culture of collective discussion and mutual co-operation, be it among co-residents or co-workers, remains strong in Egypt to this day and can empower communities to bring about local change without necessarily having a western-style vote.

Instead, voting is reserved for presidential and parliamentary elections, which have historically usually been foregone conclusions and are therefore not seen as primary agents of change. Ancient Egyptian practices of this kind, as well as their enduring legacy, can be a useful addition to the debate over the historical emergence of democracy.

Broadly speaking, one school emphasises the originality and importance of the Ancient Greek model, to which systematic popular control of and direct participation in governance, and formal voting, was vital. Another approach argues that the Ancient Greeks were influenced by other cultures in their political system as they were in other areas.

It holds further that democracy of a type was also developed elsewhere, in some cases before being taken up in Ancient Greece. It might take the form, for instance, of the holding of public assemblies to address major matters of concern.

Elements of the Ancient Egyptian model of local governance might be grouped with this latter, looser version of democracy. It also relied on an interplay between local people putting forward ideas and unelected Pharaonic officials tasked with hearing them and taking action.

However, the presence of councils where ideas could be discussed, and the capacity for significant popular input into how communities were run, means that this Ancient Egyptian model might be placed on a spectrum of early democratic practice. What it shared with other early versions of democracy, of which the Greek was the most fully developed and celebrated, was its participatory nature, drawing people into processes. This quality distinguishes it clearly from many contemporary perceptions of democracy, in which representatives govern on behalf of the public, with a system of vertical accountability operating via elections.

It was this variety of democracy that was most influential during the so-called second wave of democratisation in the post-Second World War decolonisation period. During this time, states such as Egypt adopted constitutions modeled on the established democracies of the time, neglecting their own traditions. It must be noted that none of these practices made Ancient Egypt anything other than an absolute monarchy, in the formal constitutional sense.

Pharaonic authority was always formally supreme and was accepted not only as a political necessity but as a natural order. Nonetheless, the reality of local administration was such that in practice this supreme authority was also distant and hence appealed to only as a last resort to resolve pronounced difficulties or disputes.

It was local government of the type described above within which people actually participated and of which they felt a part. We can detect this outlook in contemporary Egypt, and popular attitudes towards, respectively local and central government. We hope that this paper has demonstrated the contemporary political significance of Egyptian history, from the Ancient era onwards.

However, what specific lessons might be derived from the perspective of those concerned with the international promotion of democracy? We advance the following conclusions:. While the role of Islam is clearly a major consideration, we have deliberately focused on other factors which can too easily be neglected.

It is important to appreciate that religious influences function in diverse ways across different territories, partly for historical reasons. Egypt has a long religious tradition predating and to some extent running in tandem with Islam, that has impacted upon the particular ways in which this more recent faith functions in Egypt today. In other areas, Islam may operate differently, also partly for historical reasons. Islam itself can change in its orientation over time, exhibits major and minor theological variants, as does Christianity, and has a remarkable capacity to absorb local traditions, also like Christianity.

This observation leads to consideration of the approach to Egypt as part of the Middle East. While a review of Egyptian religious history indicates the sources of diversity across the Middle East that exponents of democracy should take into account, it also suggests a shared pre-Islamic culture, upon which Ancient Egypt had an important influence. Another way in which the Middle East might be differentiated is between states that are more recent creations and those that have longer roots.

Egypt clearly fits within the second group. Some of its objectives in the region are of long antecedence, and should be considered as such. Pharaonic rule had a strong military and religious dimension. In this sense, it provides precedent for the current military dominance; and also, were such a system to come into being, a religious regime.

But these two poles are likely to produce outcomes seen as undesirable by supporters of democracy. You will receive a link to create a new password via email. Conservatives are divided over how to view the situation in Egypt.

Some have taken the more prudent stance that the U. Both perspectives have their own merits, and both have been argued persuasively in recent pieces by Bill Kristol and Charles Krauthammer. Glenn Beck, instead of taking a hard, sober look at a situation that will have major ramifications for the U.

The new theory Beck appears to be pushing is that the Egyptian revolt is being controlled by an alliance between leftist American organizations and Islamists. Like most misguided ideas, this theory is based in some truth.

But so what? Many leftist groups are anti-American. Islamist groups are anti-American. Good Subscriber Account active since Shortcuts. Account icon An icon in the shape of a person's head and shoulders. It often indicates a user profile. Log out. US Markets Loading H M S In the news. Glynnis MacNicol. Sign up for notifications from Insider! Stay up to date with what you want to know.

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