Day 9: Nasser’s Arab Socialism and the Controversy of Democratization

I’m assigning two required readings for Tuesday, February 9 on Nasser’s Arab socialism. One of them is on the St. Edward’s Library website, so you’ll need to log in to view it. It’s located here.  The second is a reflection on the Arab Spring and the legacy of Nasser, located here. I’m also providing this optional reading for anyone who wants the challenge of reading advanced scholarship on authoritarianism and democratization in Nasser’s Egypt.

The big question I want us to answer through our discussions on Tuesday is: What lessons can we learn from Nasser’s Egypt that we can bring to the debate on democratization?

I’ll take a few minutes at the beginning of class to explain some things about the Muslim Brotherhood and its conflicts with Nasser. We’ll spend some time then analyzing the consensus on democratization from CIG and then using what we learn from the articles to see how the two authors would view the status of democracy in Nasser’s Egypt.

We’ll watch a couple of videos to start off today.

Nationalization of the Suez Canal:

Nasser debating Naguib on revolution and democracy:

{Content on BBC’s website.}

Nasser on the Muslim Brotherhood:

Here’s how we’ll handle our discussion of the CIG chapter and the readings on Nasser:

In some medium-sized groups (maybe 5 or 6 people), imagine that you’re President Eisenhower’s cabinet in the late 1950s and you’re evaluating the idea of US support for Abdel Nasser’s government in Egypt. In terms of the debate on democratization, what rationale would your group give to say that the US should or should not support Abdel Nasser, and if so in what ways would you? Consider whether you believe that democratization or security are stronger ideals for the United States.

It would be ideal, as usual, if someone in each group would post notes of your group’s discussion on this blog post as a comment.