The Path to Moderation: Strategy and Learning in the Formation of Egypt's Wasat Party

Abstract

What prompts radical opposition leaders to revise or abandon their ultimate goals and accommodate themselves to the give and take of democratic politics? This question has been explored largely by scholars seeking to explain the historic deradicalization of the left in western Europe and Latin America. According to a number of influential studies, radical socialist leaders and parties moderated their agendas in order to exploit the new opportunities for electoral participation created by democratization. Yet recent change in the ideological positions staked out by some leaders in Egypt's Islamic movement reveals that moderation can also occur in the absence of democratization. More limited institutional openings can be sufficient to generate strategic incentives for moderation and create opportunities for political learning, or experience-driven change in individual leaders' core values and beliefs.