Counter Revolution as a Paranoid Regime: The Case of Egypt

• In Event: 1223 - Open Topics in Global and Transnational Sociology Roundtable (60 min)
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 9: Revolutions, Rebellion and Social Change

Abstract

Could political regimes be paranoid? I consider this question in relation to the Egyptian military regime that emerged and expanded in the aftermath of the military coup in July 2013. In this paper, I argue that paranoia has been a key marker of the counter-revolution in Egypt. By this, I suggest that military and security leaders in Egypt have been fearing losing control of Egypt in the same way they lost control during the 2011 uprising. I interrogate three features of this paranoid regime. First, conspiracy theories have been central in the regime’s discourse. Second, the regime has been obsessed with the January Revolution of 2011 and identifying it as trigger and cause of a plan to destroy the nation.. Third, the regime has resorted to use excessive and disproportionate use of violence and flaunting of the state’s coercive apparatus through military parades, among other things to feel secure in showing off its coercive might. The paper is part of an ongoing research on the Egyptian Revolution and its aftermath. The data in this paper comes from archival research and social media analysis, human rights reports, and civil discourse.

Author

• Atef S. Said, University of Illinois at Chicago