Democracy Post-2011 Arab Spring: Perceptions and Election Fairness in Egypt

Abstract

Abstract

The democratic transition in Egypt post 25^th of January Revolution reveals a correlation between popular perceptions of election fairness and views of local election monitors regarding election procedures. The changes in popular perceptions of the political environment in which the democratic transition is taking place seems to cast a shadow over the perception of election fairness. A relationship which in turn reveals the unresolved dilemma in the region between both the philosophy of democracy and the mechanisms of democracy; a factor that would be determinant to the democratic transition in the region as manifested in the example of Egypt. Different levels of election fairness were perceived despite similar Election Day procedural violations in both pre- and post-Arab Spring Egypt.