Inside Story: Is 'People Power' More Important Than We Think?

As an unprecedented refugee crisis unfolds before our eyes, we ask if civilians have the power to change global policy.

After Mubarak: The Autumn of the Patriarchs
THE ECONOMIST: A generational change of mentality may bring fresh hope to the entire region

Photograph: The Economist
SEMINAL moments in revolutions do not come at nicely spaced intervals, but in a bewildering cascade. The accelerating rush of events leading to the abrupt downfall of Egypt’s president, Hosni Mubarak, came so cluttered with markers signifying radical change that their deeper implications can be hard to discern. The country’s streets have now calmed, with the army in charge of a wobbly interim government. But the smallest happenings in Cairo still reverberate with new meanings, not only for Egypt but for the surrounding region.

One such little scene with big implications played out some 36 hours after Mr Mubarak’s exit, when two top generals from the military council now ruling Egypt hosted a chat with some of the youthful campaigners whose organisational genius, to their own surprise as much as anyone’s, finally toppled Mr Mubarak on February 11th. In a Facebook post, the visitors described the meeting as encouraging. Not only did the generals, both in their early 60s, affirm the army’s commitment to the goals of the revolution, including a swift transition to democracy under civilian rule. They also showed “unprecedented respect for the opinions of young people”.

For Egyptians inured to rigid hierarchies of class and age, this last point was telling. Only a week before, as huge demonstrations engulfed the country, Mr Mubarak’s short-termed vice-president, the dour ex-head of intelligence, Omar Suleiman, had infuriated young Egyptians by suggesting that the protesters’ parents should tell them to go home. His prime minister, Ahmed Shafik, when pressed to apologise for a murderous attack on unarmed protesters by paid pro-Mubarak thugs, promised sarcastically to send the victims chocolates and sweets. >>> | Thursday, February 17, 2011 from PRINT EDITION

The Arab World: The Awakening
THE ECONOMIST – LEADER: As change sweeps through the Middle East, the world has many reasons to fear. But it also has one great hope

THE people of the Middle East have long despaired about the possibility of change. They have felt doomed: doomed to live under strongmen who have hoarded their wealth and beaten down dissent; doomed to have as an alternative only the Islamists who have imposed their harsh beliefs—and beaten down dissent. In some places, like Saudi Arabia and Iran, the autocrats and the Islamists have merged into one. But nowhere has a people had a wholly free choice in how they are ruled. And the West has surrendered to this despair too, assuming that only the strongmen could hold back the extremists.

Two months ago a Tunisian fruit-seller called Muhammad Bouazizi set fire to these preconceptions when, in despair over bullying officials and the lack of work, he drenched himself in petrol and struck a match. Tunisians and, later, Egyptians took to the streets. Almost miraculously, the people overwhelmed the strongmen who had oppressed them for decades. In the past few days tens of thousands have marched in Tehran, braving beatings and arrest. In tiny Bahrain men have died as the security forces sprayed protesters with rubber bullets and smothered them in tear gas. In Libya crowds have risen up against a fearsome dictator. Jordan is sullen, Algeria unstable and Yemen seething (see article).

Radical Islamists have long been the Arab world’s presumed revolutionaries, but these fights do not belong to them. In a region that had rotted under repression, a young generation has suddenly found its voice. Pushing ahead of their elders, they have become intoxicated with the possibility of change. As with Europe’s triumphant overthrow of communism in 1989, or even its failed revolutions of 1848, upheaval on such a scale can transform societies. What does that mean for the Islamists, the strongmen and the world? >>> Leader | Thursday, February 17, 2011 from PRINT EDITION

Egypte : nouveaux heurts entre policiers et manifestants
Des policiers égyptiens répriment des manifestants anti-gouvernement, mercredi 26 janvier, au Caire. Photo : Le Monde
LE MONDE: Des affrontements ont à nouveau opposé mercredi 26 janvier des policiers et des manifestants dans le centre du Caire et dans la ville de Suez, à l'est de la capitale égyptienne. Quelques centaines de manifestants affrontent les forces de l'ordre en face des locaux du syndicat de journaliste et de ceux du syndicat des avocats, rapporte un journaliste d'Al-Jazira.

Selon plusieurs journalistes présents sur place, la police a dispersé les manifestants en les frappant avec des bâtons et en utilisant des gaz lacrymoègnes. Des heurts particulièrement violents ont ensuite été signalés sur les rues avoisinantes. >>> LeMonde.fr | Mercredi 26 Janvier 2011

Thousands Join Cairo Protests
Thousands of protesters are marching in Cairo, the Egyptian capital, to demand that Hosni Mubarak, the president, step down. They clashed with riot police in a rare show of strength by the people. Many in the crowds called for a Tunisian style ousting of Mubarak. Rawya Rageh reports from Cairo

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Protester stands up to water cannon in Eygpt: In a scene reminiscent of Tiananmen Square, a protester in Cairo has blocked the path of a water cannon during demonstrations. >>> | Wednesday, January 26, 2011

People Power: Revolution in the Air >>>

People & Power - Iran: Inside the Protests – July 10, 2009

Janet Daley: Look Across the Pond for a Lesson in Listening to the People
THE TELEGRAPH: Having spent the past two weeks immersed in American politics (spiritually, not physically), I must try to readjust my eyes for the British domestic scene.

It is not just the difference in scale that is disconcerting - this is a small island, after all, not a continental superpower. It is the sense of a wholly different conception of the relationship between government and people.

After more than 40 years as an American expatriate living in Britain, I have not got over the shock of being in a democratic country where the governing class holds the views of ordinary people in such contempt: the priorities of the public - whether they are uncontrolled immigration, lack of appropriate punishment for criminals, or the outrageous cost of the basic necessities of modern life - can be disregarded or dismissed if the governing elite decides that they are wrong-headed or benighted.

There is almost no sense at all of the principle that underpins the US Constitution: that in a democracy, the will of the majority of the people is sacred.

What prevails in Britain is the received wisdom of the professional political club. And that includes not just those elected to Parliament but their entourages, their party machines and their media hangers-on. Of course, Washington has its insider cabals and its incestuous "inside the Beltway" culture. But no member of Congress who wishes to survive can afford to become as detached and disdainful of popular opinion as members of the British political class openly (and shamelessly) declare themselves to be.

It is a positive point of pride among politicians here to say that they bravely hold out against "populist" demands - which is to say that they wilfully ignore and deride the concerns of ordinary people because they are not sufficiently enlightened to be worthy of consideration. Look across the Pond for a Lesson in Listening to the People >>> By Janet Daley September 8, 2008

The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Dust Jacket Hardcover, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>
The Dawning of a New Dark Age – Paperback, direct from the publishers (UK) >>>