Many events influenced modern Egypt’s political, historical, and constitutional framework: the role of foreign powers (France and Great Britain) in Egypt’s past, especially with regards to the control of strategic nodes for political and economic stability in the area, such as the Suez canal; the independence movements that emerge in response to British colonial rule; Egypt’s complicated position in the Middle Eastern scenario, which has historically oscillated between that of leading country in the pan-Arabist movement and that of a highly westernized country serving as a reference point for western interests in the area as well as a mediator in the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Egypt’s constitutional history is characterized by instability: five constitutions emerged and then disappeared between 1956 and 1971, and in 1980 there were important modifications that led to a partial change in the ideological bases of the Constitution. Egypt abandoned, to a certain extent, the socialist nature of its Constitution and moved towards both liberal and Islamic principles.
These amendments give a sense of the historical evolution that the country went through during the Nasser and Sadat eras. Egyptian institutions have not had a strong impact on the country’s society, in part because some of the texts that defined their functions are too generically programmatic. Nevertheless, the lack of institutional stability has been partly compensated by certain continuity in leadership on the part of a small number of leaders, who thanks to an increasingly strong presidential system managed to play a forceful role on both the national and international political scene.
The pillars upon which the 1971 Constitution rests include the Head of State, the legislative, executive, and judiciary powers, and the consultative assembly (Shura). The Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt, adopted in 1971 and amended in 1980, proclaims that Egypt is an Arab Republic with........
