[lbo-talk] Egypt Islamists widen poll lead

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Sat Dec 3 10:34:18 PST 2011


http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-16017862

"Latest results from the Egyptian elections indicate that Islamist parties are likely to have a strong majority in the new parliament.

The political wing of the Muslim Brotherhood and a more conservative Salafist Islamist party are leading, while secular liberals are behind."

[WS:] Interesting. My conjecture why this is the case is the "state effect." Ideology must have a state that is perceived as successful to be internationally popular. Socialism was very popular in the developing countries because the USSR, which nominally espoused socialism, was perceived as successful and an antidote to Anglo-American imperialism. With the demise of the USSR socialism lost its appeal, and was replaced by Islamism, since regional powers perceived as successful (Saudi Arabia) or antidote to Anglo-American imperialism (Iran) embraced Islamism.

By the same logic, secular liberalism, associated with the Anglo-American empire and its EU stooges, is losing popularity.

Wojtek



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list