Convergent (il)liberalism in the Mediterranean? Some notes on Egyptian (post-)authoritarianism and Italian (post-)democracy

Abstract

This paper explores the hypothesis of a convergence between ‘backsliding’ European liberal democracies and the ‘pseudo-liberalization’ of Middle Eastern authoritarian systems (Cavatorta, 2010) by considering the similarities, beyond the well-known differences, between Italy and Egypt. We suggest that standard indicators of regime type (e.g. Polity IV Authority Index) fail to capture important trends both in the evolution of both the forms of political power and the forms of resistance. Reflecting on such trends may help re-think the current limitations of Democratization theory (Teti, 2012).

“Waves” of Western Literature on “Democratization in the Arab World”: Genuine Analyses or Political Exigencies?

“…322-324), Abdel-Fattah Mady (2013), Onn Winckler (2013, Brynen et al (2013) are among some of the representatives of this new position. Of the same position, Andrea Teti and Mura (2013) calls for attention to the increasing convergence of post-authoritarian and post-democratic countries due to their similar economic development models and the similar problems posed by neoliberal economics. Nadine Mourad Sika (2013) also warns that tensions will continue as long as the same neoliberal development model persists in the region.…”

From Tahrir to the world: The camp as a political public space

“…Those protests and uprisings emerged from specific and different socio-economic conditions (Tyner and Rice, 2012), but they also shared much: opposition to a model of Arab dictatorship reliant on political repression, emergency laws, a vast and brutal security service, corruption, and family or de facto hereditary rule (Ben-Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt, Saleh in Yemen, Assad in Syria, Gaddafi in Libya). Across the Mediterranean and further afield, people were also taking to the streets of Greece, Italy, Spain, the UK and the USA (see Douzinas, 2013, Teti & Mura, 2013, Taibo, 2013). These were not uprisings against dictators, but against austerity, failing government policies, neoliberalism and capitalism more generally.…”

The reception of Iran's state propaganda by the Italian far right: recasting the diffusion of authoritarian discourse and narratives

“…The debate on authoritarian diffusion is relatively new and reflects mounting fears for the crisis of liberalism and ‘the end of the end of history’ (Kagan, 2009; Schmitter, 2015; Diamond et al ., 2016; Cassani and Tomini, 2019). While the actual success of authoritarian diffusion initiatives is a matter of debate (Tansey, 2016; Way, 2016; Chou, 2017), its study has opened up interesting and much needed conversations about the transnational dimension of authoritarianism, including studies that centre the international complicities that guarantee its survival (Ambrosio, 2014; Mullin and Patel, 2015; Gervasio and Teti, 2021; Topak et al ., 2022) and comparative studies that question the practical and theoretical distinction between democracy and authoritarianism in an era of ‘democratic pessimism’ (Tagma et al ., 2013; Teti and Mura, 2013; Wood, 2017). This article builds on this scholarship, but also expands it by focusing on another – less investigated – dimension of how political authoritarianism travels internationally: its discursive and narrative form.…”