A program of the Center for Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), focusing on Arab World affairs. CDDRL is a research center at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies.
As part of the Arab Reform and Democracy Program's speaker series, George Washington University scholar Mona Atia discussed her book Building a House in Heaven: Pious Neoliberalism and Islamic Charity in Egypt. Islamic charities occupied a critical space in Mubarak-era Egypt.
As part of the Arab Reform and Democracy Program's speaker series, Executive Director of the Mediterranean Development Initiative Ghazi Ben Ahmed examined the challenge of youth alienation in the context of the Tunisian transition. Social and economic grievances of Tunisian youth played a major role in igniting the uprising in Tunisia, and more generally, the so-called Arab Spring.
As part of the Arab Reform and Democracy Program's speaker series, UC Santa Barbara Political Scientist Paul Amar discussed his book The Security Archipelago, winner of the 2014 Charles Taylor Book Award of the American Political Science Association.
As part of the Arab Reform and Democracy Program's speaker series, UC Santa Barbara Historian Sherene Seikaly discusses her research on Egypt's 1977 bread intifada. A return to the historical moment of the “Bread Intifada,” of 1977 interrupts the narrative resilience of the alternating sleep and wakefulness of the Egyptian, and more broadly the Arab people.
As part of the Arab Reform and Democracy Program's speaker series, University of Richmond Political Scientist Sheila Carapico discussed findings from her ground-breaking study Political Aid and Arab Activism: Democracy Promotion, Justice, and Representation (Cambridge University Press, 2013) which explores two decades’ worth of projects sponsored by American, European, and other transnational agencies
As part of the Arab Reform and Democracy Program's speaker series, Stanford Historian Joel Beinin discussed the role of workers in advancing revolutionary struggles in Egypt and Tunisia. Arab workers participated prominently in the popular uprisings of 2011.
As part of the Arab Reform and Democracy Program speaker series, US Institute of Peace Vice-President for Applied Research on Conflict Steven Heydemann examined the future of authoritarian rule in the Arab region in the aftermath of the Arab uprisings. The uprisings that spread across the Middle East in 2011 created new hope for democratic change in the Arab world. Four years
On the fourth anniversary of Egypt's January 25 Revolution, Hesham Sallam, associate director of CDDRL's Program on Arab Reform and Democracy and Jadaliyya co-editor, remarks on the return of authoritarianism in Egypt under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. Sallam argues that the ruling military regime has become more repressive than that of President Hosni Mubarak, highlighting growing victimization of civil society members. Listen to Sallam's interview with KPFA 94.1 Berkeley below.
In a recent interview, Program on Arab Reform and Democracy Associate Director Hesham Sallam weighed in on the recent court ruling that acquitted former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and his security aides of the charge of killing protesters during the January 25 uprising in 2011. Tracing recent political developments in the past four years, Sallam sees Egypt's government regressing back to a deeper authoritatrian regime.
In a recent article, Stanford Professor of Middle East History Joel Beinin examines the controversy over the decision of a European Parliament bloc to withdraw their nomination of Egyptian activist Alaa Abdel Fattah to the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought after a Wall Street Journal editorial accused Abdel Fattah of inciting hatred against Israel on social media.
One of the routine assumptions of students of democratization has been that there is a close, causal relationship between liberalization and democratization. The former is said to drive those who concede it toward convoking credible elections and, eventually, tolerating ruler accountability to citizens. The link between those processes of regime transformation is alleged to be the mobilization of civil society.
On May 10-11, 2010 the Program on Good Governance and Political Reform in the Arab World at CDDRL held its international inaugural conference. In line with the Arab Reform Program's vision, the conference featured internationally renowned scholars, activists, and practitioners from the Arab world, Europe and the United States.
Egyptian activists made history in February 2011 when they overturned a thirty-year dictatorship, in part thanks to their mastery of social media.
The Program on Arab Reform and Democracy at CDDRL is pleased to announce a one-day conference to be held on Friday April 29, 2011, entitled, "Democratic Transition in Egypt." This event, co-sponsored by the Abbasi Program in Islamic Studies at Stanford University, will focus on Egypt's current revolutionary period, to examine this pivotal moment in Egypt's political history and prospects for future reform. The conference brings to Stanford leading Egypt academics from American, European, and Egyptian universities and think tanks. Panels will examine the background to the revolution, discus
This conference focuses on empowering political activism in the Arab world, and features scholars and activists discussing the achievements of and challenges facing political activists in Egypt, Tunisia, Yemen, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, and Saudi Arabia.