An analysis of the social factors that resulted in the 2011 social unrest in Egypt, integrated with a personality profiler of its revolutionary leadership

Abstract

At the beginning of 2011, the majority of Egyptian citizens ended the thirty-year authoritarian regime of President Mubarak. From the full of celebrations day of 25th January Revolution till the beginning of July 2013 a lot of political drama overflowed the turbulent Egyptian society, leading to the overthrow of the first legitimately elected President M. Morsi. General Al-Sisi took over the presidential duties in 2014, and the whole world is still struggling to determine whose actions favor and which undermine the democracy and/or the interests of Egyptian people. In an effort to research the social factors that prepared and resulted in the political activism and unrest in Egypt over these latest years, this study has been developed on two main axes. The first one applies an analytical model focusing on the critical drivers towards social unrest, especially adjusted for the data referring to Eastern Mediterranean and Middle Eastern societal characteristics. The second axis then takes advantage of the model’s assessments and proceeds with the narrative interpretation of the facts through a personality profiler for M. Morsi. In this way the research questions meet answers, conclusions and policy implications that combine, in terms of political psychology, both personality-based approaches to politics as well as structural and institutional role constraints restricting the range of initiatives available for leadership decision making.