Walking a Thin Line of Representation
Analyzing the Behavior of Egyptian MPs
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6160899 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Mazen Hassan (0000-0003-0765-5563, Cairo University), Ahmed Abdrabou (0000-0003-3423-3884, University of Denver), Hala Abdelgawad (Cairo University) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 335-362 |
| Publication date | 2021-07-07 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Middle East Law and Governance (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1876-3367 • E-ISSN: 1876-3375 |
| Publisher | Brill (PUBLISHER • NL) |
| DOI | 10.1163/18763375-13031308 |
| OpenAlex | W3184498683 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
This article is part of the Special Issue “Parliaments in the Middle East and North Africa: A Struggle for Relevance.” While legislators in democratic settings have the electorate as their main principal, mp s in semi- and nondemocratic settings need to serve two principals to remain in office: the regime and the active segment of the electorate. This dichotymy sometimes requires particular skills in parliamentary behavior. For the case of Egypt, we investigate how mp s strike a balance between regime support and representing their constituents up to an extent that does not endanger their chances for re-election. A content analysis of session scripts of the Egyptian parliament in 2016 was conducted to examine how mp s walk this – traditionally understudied – thin line. Our findings indicate that representation gets reduced to “descriptive representation,” i.e. a representation that puts more emphasis on representing local constituents and demographic segments, like Copts and women, that mp s are presumably elected to represent. We therefore show that mp s fulfill the important tasks of citizens representation even in semi- and nondemocratic settings
Balance (ability · Computer security · Democracy · Geography · Islam · Parliament · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Principal (computer security · Relevance (law · Representation (politics · Scripting language · Session (web analytics · Sociology · World Wide Web · Computer Science · Law · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Psychology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1,5 |
| Citation span | 2024 - 2025 (2) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |