The title of this piece is a spinoff from Robert Dahl’s seminal book entitled How Democratic is the American Constitution? There, the famous political scientist argued that the American constitution has undemocratic elements, including the powers of the appointed judiciary to declare legislation by elected institutions “unconstitutional.” (Sound familiar?) But away from the mature American democracy, how democratic is transitional Egypt’s new draft constitution?
On the positive side, this is Egypt’s first-ever constitution-crafting process whose assembly was elected by parliament and not appointed by a dictator, whether in the form of a monarch, as in 1923 and 1930, or in the form of a military junta, as in 1956 and 1971. Unfortunately, this fact partly explains the current instability. Add to that the rise of a new political elite, mostly from the religious lower-middle classes, who have no ruling experience. Will this new elite turn Egypt into a theocracy via the constitution, as many in the upper-middle and upper classes who reject it claim? Or is this just a myth propagated by conflicting groups whose only commonality is being losers, either in the democratic game or in the revolutionary process?
