What do Egyptians think of the US?

It’s a hard question to answer and I know that I can’t. Instead, dear reader, I will provide you with an anecdote to consider:

Egyptian riot police are firing tear gas canisters bearing the label “Made in U.S.A” against street demonstrations in Cairo, according to protesters who provided ABC News with pictures of the canisters…

The label urges anyone who comes in contact with the gas “to seek assistance as soon as possible.”

According to the canister labels, the tear gas is produced by Combined Systems International of Jamestown, Pennsylvania…

Egyptians who are part of the street demonstrations told ABC News that the evidence of the U.S.-made tear gas sends a powerful signal.

“The way I see it the U.S. administration supports dictators,” said Aly Eltayeb, 26, who has participated in the protests since Tuesday.

Yes, well… Hmm… You see, the thing is…of course the US supports democracy in Egypt, but, you know, even democracies need armies and police. And, obviously, mistakes were made, but you can’t hold us accountable for that, can you? There, that’s clear…isn’t it?

D&S is right on time!

We like to be timely here at D&S, but we’re not usually this timely. Our most recent issue of Democracy and Society (which just came out this week!), as it turns out, focuses on US foreign policy in the Middle East and has lots of good articles addressing the crises unfolding in the region:

• Dina Guirguis provides some good analysis about what’s unfolding in Egypt at the moment…and predicted the explosive protests we’re seeing there right now (I’m not certain if she was predicting them so soon…).
• Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf (of the Park 51 Mosque controversy) and Eric Patterson provide some good advice for how the Obama administration can engage in the region in a constructive way.
• Nicholas Noe discusses (predicted?) the crisis in Lebanon.
• Uriel Abulof and David Kenner talk about the challenges of democratic reform in the region.
• István Balogh weighs in on the shifting balance of external power in the region.

As they say, RTWT (read the whole thing).

What Makes a Protest Legitimate?

The Christian Science Monitor calls out Biden for his recent remarks about Mubarak and the protests in Egypt.  In addition to saying that Mubarak is not a dictator and shouldn’t have to step down from his “29 year reign” [emphasis added], Biden advises both Mubarak and protestors to come together to discuss the legitimacy of the protests.  The CSM article ends with this choice dig:

Egypt’s protesters, if they’re paying attention to Biden at all, will certainly be wondering which of their demands thus far have been illegitimate [emphasis theirs].

Here at D&S, Barak writes a lot about protest, but to my knowledge, hasn’t yet discussed what makes a protest legitimate.  Perhaps it’s my unrelenting American identity, but I’ve always assumed that the will of the people automatically made a protest legit.  Having just written that, and thinking critically about it, perhaps not: I don’t know that I could go so far as to call the Tea Partiers a legitimate protest (although perhaps that’s really because I think they lack credibility, not legitimacy).  I understand that even in ‘popular’ protests, the majority of the country is not involved – activities are focused among the elites and city-dwellers.  Is international support the necessary ingredient?  In either case, so much for the will of the people.

So, my fellow D&Sers and DGers?  What makes a protest legitimate?  And while we’re at it, who wins this round?  Biden or the CSM?

Not serious budget debate

The Republicans are super-duper, really, really, really serious about cutting spending. I disagree. In fact, I don’t think they are serious at all. The Republicans in the House want to cut $100 billion of non-security discretionary spending from the fiscal year 2011 budget. This is a ridiculous way to reduce the budget deficit. The White House proposed budget for 2011 is $3.8 trillion. $2.4 trillion is non-discretionary (mainly social security, medicare, and interest on the debt). Defense accounts for about $850 billion. Discretionary spending, by contrast, is around $500 billion, or about 13% of the total budget. In fact, the projected budget deficit for this year is more than double all discretionary spending! Trying to “balance the budget” through “painful cuts” or by “eliminating waste, fraud, and abuse,” but fencing off 87% of that budget from any cuts makes zero sense. Even if Congress eliminated all discretionary spending, the US budget deficit would still be more than 5% of GDP. There is simply no way to reduce the budget deficit to manageable levels (2%-3% of GDP) without raising taxes, and/or reducing spending on medicare, social security and/or defense. None. At. All.

After the revolt

MA in Democracy and Governance Co-Director Dan Brumberg argues that while the revolt in Tunisia is an historic event in the Arab world, it’s far too early to see any signs of a more democratic region emerging from it:

To appreciate what has happened in Tunisia, consider one elemental fact: in 60 years, there has never been one case of a successful, popular revolt toppling an Arab regime. On the contrary, despite periodic legitimacy crises, Arab autocracies have demonstrated a remarkable capacity for self-preservation…

Yet if events in Tunisia give advocates of democracy cause for celebration, we must keep two basic points in mind. First, the road ahead will be fraught with uncertainty and even danger. The capacity of Tunisia’s fractious opposition to unite and mobilize popular support for a common agenda is unknown…

The second point is the uniqueness of the Tunisian case. Most US-backed Arab regimes have not replicated the far-reaching autocracy typical of Ben Ali’s Tunisia. Instead, the leaders of Egypt, Morocco, Jordan, Yemen and Kuwait have long tolerated a measure of state-controlled political competition in a bid to secure some popular acceptance at home and international support abroad. Even if this semi-authoritarian arrangement no longer works very well, it will probably continue to provide the institutional basis for heading off popular rebellions similar to the one that toppled Ben Ali.

Sounds like a solid argument to me.