Ambiguities of student activism, authoritarianism and democratic attitudes: the cases of Egypt and Morocco

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis article is concerned with exploring the political attitudes of a microcosm of university students, in Egypt and Morocco, which present two different case studies in the Arab world. The first, a republic which faced mass demonstrations and regime breakdown during the Arab Uprisings, and the second, a monarchy which faced mass demonstrations that were quickly contained through various authoritarian upgrading measures by the monarch. The research is based on analysing two survey studies conducted in various universities during the period from December 2012 until February 2013. The study found that young activists are most likely to be young men who are members of political parties. They believe in some procedural aspects of democracy, such as voting. Egyptian activists believe that democracy is more important than security, unlike the rest of the sample in Egypt and Morocco. However, Egyptian and Moroccan activists’ attitudes towards equality, freedoms and tolerance are more traditional and conforming with conservative social attitudes in their polities at large. This presents an ambiguous relationship between activists and democracy in authoritarian regimes, which needs further analysis.