Towards effective youth participation

Civic participation among youth in Egypt is alarmingly low. According to a recent survey, which confirms the findings of various earlier surveys, only 2% of youth are participating in volunteer work, only 5% participate in youth centers and sports clubs, political parties, unions and associations and housing and school boards, and only 16% of all eligible young voters voted in a previous election (The Population Council, 2010). In spite of these grim statistics, there are some indications that this condition is slowly being reversed and that an increasing number of young people are becoming more actively engaged and mobilized. However, such engagement is not taking place through conventional or formal channels of participation such as student unions, trade unions, political parties, or elections - all of which are subject to a large battery of legal restrictions. Rather youth participation is taking place through new and unconventional channels such as informal social movements and new media. I argue that the recent increase in youth participation can be detected in four principle arenas: the NGO sector, new social movements, independent student initiatives and new media. In the following, I examine youth mobilization in these four arenas, explore the reasons behind the proposed increase in youth mobilization, and conclude with a brief note on youth mobilization in Egypt and the Arab world.

SAHWA Scientific Paper, 2017

This Scientific Paper aims at highlighting youth political engagement during the Arab Spring – the peak of explicit, direct and mass “youth involvement in politics”. This exceptionally high involvement did not continue to be institutionalised. In fact, the earlier mass political participation contrasts at present with a certain political marginalisation of former activists/youth leaders. The logical research question is then: what accounts for such two extremes? To analyse this evolution from one extreme to the other, this paper adopts a comparative approach between the two seemingly similar cases of Egypt and Tunisia. These two countries are different in some respects: Egypt has nine times the population of Tunisia, for example, and the two countries’ recent colonial past has been influenced by different sociopolitical traditions: Anglophone and Francophone. However, for the subject of this paper they share the status of being the pioneers of the Arab Spring.

2019

APA Citation Hesham, M. (2019).Efforts to involve youth in policy making in Egypt post-2014 [Master’s thesis, the American University in Cairo]. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1357 MLA Citation Hesham, Mohamed. Efforts to involve youth in policy making in Egypt post-2014. 2019. American University in Cairo, Master's thesis. AUC Knowledge Fountain. https://fount.aucegypt.edu/etds/1357

2012

In this paper, we reflect on emerging themes of citizenship in the evolving political evolution of Egypt through the observations of a small group of engaged Egyptian. First, in trying to reconcile the facts of youth involvement since January, 2011, with prior survey findings, we suggest that characterizations of youth need to be conjoined with specified opportunities and resource availability for political action. Second, our informants point to two emerging shifts in Egyptian society that pertain to contemporary democratic theory regarding self-governance and efficacy. One is the blossoming and spread of public speech through which ordinary people express their political views publicly in the spirit of discussion and persuasion. The other is an understanding that people are able to weigh in on major issues, not as supplicants to government, but as citizens with legitimate voices in policy decisions. These two shifts coincide with a new understanding of democratic citizenship that is focused on self-determining actors who take a hand in policy instead of being recipients of government decisions. Third, the re-emergence of democracy in Egypt after decades of autocratic rule, necessarily is fraught with uncertainty and the need for new learning. These facts are reflected in youth’s hopeful, yet frustrated, trust in Egyptians, but also an awareness of deep divisions within society. Nevertheless, they envision a future democratic state in which citizens take responsibility in a shared effort to reconnect to Egypt’s civilized past in conjunction with the modern world in its true complexities.

Background Paper

The series of demonstrations now commonly known as the "Arab Spring" ignited the Arab world in 2010/2011, and saw young people taking to the streets to protest against their corrupt government system hoping to make a change. The initial spark that aroused this wave of protests took place in Tunisia, as a humble fruit vendor set himself ablaze after being humiliated, beaten and robbed by police officers. The protests in Tunisia, which have since been dubbed the "Tunisian Revolution", expanded across the Middle East in a domino effect that attracted attention the world over, largely thanks to young bloggers who organized demonstrations, filmed events as they happened, and distributed information online. There is no denying the widespread attention garnered by the Arab spring demonstrations, but we must now consider the results and political changes achieved since these events. The focus of this paper lies on youth political involvement in Tunisia, with the aim of providing an understanding of the ways in which young people have tried to gain influence, both through traditional politics, as well as through alternative methods of political engagement, such as civil society groups and social networking sites. The demographics in Tunisian society will be considered as a starting point, followed by an investigation of youth political representation.

2015

This study aims at examining the role played by social media in empowering and encouraging the Egyptian youth for political participation. Previous studies found that traditional media have not been influential enough to drive youth's political participation.

British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies

Tunisia, the birthplace of the 'Arab Spring', has emerged as the only credible story of political transition and democratic consolidation across the region. However, ongoing challenges are tempering the euphoria of the early emancipatory mantra of freedom and dignity. Nevertheless, the political transformation continues to gather assured democratic momentum. And whilst the country's political elite and leading civil society organizations have managed to avoid the chaotic, and in some cases violent, scenarios in neighbouring countries, some significant challenges remain ahead, none less important than enduring corruption, socioeconomic inequalities, sporadic but highly damaging security events, and persistent economic problems, most notably high unemployment among university graduates. Based on qualitative insights and quantitative data, this paper shows that many of these challenges are epitomized in the critical demographic cohort of youth who are disengaging from all forms of formal political activities. The paper argues that democratic gains can be fragile and will be jeopardized unless urgent structural reforms and transformative initiatives are introduced in the country to restore, even partially, the youth's capacity to influence the social reform agenda and the overall democratization process.