Last week’s military ouster of Egypt’s first freely-elected president, Mohamed Morsi, had me troubled about what to think. Is this a coup and, if so, how do we address it? One can’t say one supports democracy and then support the overthrow of a duly-elected candidate, right?
Then I decided there might be more than meets the eye here. Morsi may have won a relatively fair and clean election but once he did, did he uphold democratic principles? Once president, he essentially put himself above the law by flatly refusing to be bound by judicial oversight. Was that the will of the people? It’s hard to argue that it was.
This is the inevitable tension that arises in a democracy, where the majority rules but must still respect the rights of the minority. I don’t believe you can have democracy without this balance.
So, do I think the Egyptian military took power in a coup? I’m not convinced. Instead, I think what Egypt has is more of a democracy “do-over.” The country’s been ruled autocratically for decades: it doesn’t have much experience with true democracy. Morsi’s ouster may actually be Revolution Part II in a country still trying to sort itself out.
Regardless of the pros and cons of the lastest activity, Egypt’s transition to democracy remains incomplete.