The Illusion of Reform

Egypt gravely needs genuine and radical reforms. Political reform includes two separate but related processes: liberalization and democratization. These changes often occur simultaneously, but they are distinct processes and do not necessarily enhance each other. Furthermore, they usually do not occur simultaneously in the Middle East. Arab Middle East regimes attempting political reform have often chosen a plodding process of liberalization, letting democratization lag far behind. Democratization essentially means greater political participation in existing government systems, enhancing the citizen’s freedom to participate in and influence the government. 1 In contrast, liberalization can mean any reform that augments the citizen’s individual freedom. For example, relaxing press censorship or public association laws, or implementing limited economic privatization schemes can all qualify as liberalizing reforms. 2 Political liberalization differs markedly from democratization since it expands the periphery of the public sphere without changing events at the center. These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.