| dc.description.abstract | Democratization could lead to de-moderation. This is the proposed argument of this thesis which
studies the impact of political openings on secularist forces in Egypt between 1970 and 2013, a
timeframe which crosses Sadat, Mubarak, and the post-revolution periods, witnessing several
waves of repression and inclusion. The thesis presents two secular cases: the Tagammu Party,
which was pushed towards statism by political liberalization in the 1980s, and the Revolutionary
Socialists, who shifted in an anti-institutional direction after democratization in 2011-13. These
opposing pathways seem to challenge the inclusion-moderation hypothesis. Introducing the
moderation theory to secular actors opens a broad spectrum in which to comprehend the under-studied field of Arab secularism and rethinking, and at the same time, the scope of moderation
hypotheses. The study demonstrates how these two parties responded to political openings,
evaluated political opportunities, and assessed the feasibility of the elections and their capacity to
compete with other opposition rivals, namely the Islamists. | en |
