Egypt is governed by a constitution promulgated on September 11, 1971. The constitution provides for an Arab socialist state with Islam as the official religion. It also stresses social solidarity, equal opportunity, and popular control of production.
Executive
The head of state is the president of the republic, who is nominated by the People’s Assembly and elected by popular referendum. The president is elected for a six-year term and has the power to formulate general state policy and supervise its execution. This official can dissolve the People’s Assembly, appoint and dismiss the Prime Minister and other cabinet ministers, attend cabinet meetings, and issue decrees during emergencies, but such measures must be approved by referendum within 60 days. Also, the president declares war after approval by the People’s Assembly, ratifies treaties, commutes penalties, orders plebiscites, and acts as commander in chief of the armed forces.
Legislature
Legislative authority in Egypt is vested in the unicameral People’s Assembly; 444 of its members are elected for five-year terms, and half of them are always from the worker and farmer groups. Some of the members must also be women. In addition, 10 members of the Coptic community are appointed by the president. The People’s Assembly is empowered to approve the budget, make investigations, levy taxes, and approve government programs or withdraw confidence from the cabinet or any of its members. Suffrage is universal for all Egyptian citizens over age 18.
Judiciary
Judicial authority in Egypt is vested in an independent judicial system, which is based on elements of Islamic, English, and French laws. The Supreme Constitutional Court is the highest judicial body. Courts of general jurisdiction are divided into four levels. The Court of Cassation renders final judgments in civil and criminal matters and is composed of a president, 41 vice presidents, and 92 justices. Below the Court of Cassation are seven courts of appeal, each with jurisdiction over one or more of Egypt’s governorates. In each governorate is a primary tribunal that hears both civil and criminal cases. At the lowest level are summary tribunals, which are branches of the primary tribunals that are situated in various districts and headed by a single judge.
Local Government
Egypt is divided into 26 governorates, each headed by a governor appointed by the president. The governors are aided by councils, of which most of the members are elected.
Political Parties
From 1961 to 1977 the Arab Socialist Union (ASU) was the only legal political party in Egypt. When a multiparty system was introduced in 1977, the ASU was replaced by several new parties. The number of active political groups grew to 11 by the early 1990s, though political parties must be approved by the government. Laws prohibit the formation of political parties along class lines, which serves to restrict the emergence of some parties, particularly those on the left. In the early 1990s the leading political group was the ruling National Democratic Party. Principal opposition groups were the Socialist Labor Party, the Muslim Brotherhood, and the New Wafd Party. Opposition parties boycotted the 1990 election in an unsuccessful effort to repeal legislation allowing the declaration of states of emergency.
Health and Welfare
Despite progress in the 20th century, particularly in the health of urban populations, services still lag behind the Egyptian population’s needs, especially in rural areas. By the early 1990s the country had about 101,500 physicians and about 108,400 hospital beds (one for about every 550 people). Since the 1960s, the ministry of health has made concentrated efforts to establish “rural combined” centers, each serving about 15,000 to 20,000 people. The aim of the centers is to coordinate medical, educational, social, and agricultural services through village councils. Great progress has been made in stamping out cholera, smallpox, and malaria, but such diseases as bilharzia (a parasitical disease) remain widespread. A comprehensive social insurance program was begun in 1959 and has been greatly expanded since.
Defense
Men in Egypt between the ages of 18 and 30 may be drafted for up to 36 months of military service. The total strength of the defense forces in the early 1990s was about 430,000. The army, with about 310,000, consists of eight mechanized infantry divisions, four armored divisions, and various separate brigades. Naval personnel number about 20,000. Air force personnel are estimated at 30,000, and the air defense command numbers about 70,000. Military reserves total about 304,000. Egypt sent troops to Saudi Arabia in 1990 after Iraq invaded Kuwait.
History
The origins of ancient Egyptian civilization, which many regard as one of the fountainheads of Western culture, cannot be established with certainty. Archaeological evidence suggests that early dwellers in the Nile Valley were influenced by cultures of the Near East, but the degree of this influence is yet to be determined. Describing the development of Egyptian civilization, like attempts to identify its intellectual foundations, is largely a process of conjecture based on archaeological discoveries of enduring ruins, tombs, and monuments, many of which contain invaluable specimens of the ancient culture. Inscriptions in hieroglyphs, for instance, have provided priceless data.
The framework for the study of the Dynastic period of Egyptian history, between the 1st dynasty and the Ptolemaic period, relies on the Aegyptiaca of Manetho, a Ptolemaic priest of the 3rd century BC, who organized the country’s rulers into 30 dynasties, roughly corresponding to families. General agreement exists on the division of Egyptian history, up to the conquest of Alexander the Great, into Old, Middle, and New kingdoms with intermediate periods, followed by the late and Ptolemaic periods, but chronology and genealogy are continually being refined in light of new evidence and by the use of increasingly sophisticated dating techniques.
Prehistory
Some 60,000 years ago the Nile River began its yearly inundation of the land along its banks, leaving behind rich alluvial soil. Areas close to the floodplain became attractive as a source of food and water. In time, climatic changes, including periods of aridity, further served to confine human habitation to the Nile Valley, although this was not always true. From the Chalcolithic period (the Copper age, beginning about 4000 BC) into the early part of the Old Kingdom, people apparently used an extended part of the land. In the 7th millennium BC, Egypt was environmentally hospitable, and evidence of settlements from that time has been found in the low desert areas of southern, or Upper, Egypt; remains of similar occupation have been discovered at Nubian sites in modern Sudan. Enough pottery has been found in Upper Egyptian tombs from the 4th millennium BC (in the Predynastic period) to establish a relative dating sequence. The Predynastic period, which ends with the unification of Egypt under one king, is generally subdivided into three parts, each of which refers to the site at which its archaeological materials were found: Badarian, Amratian (Naqada I), and Gerzean (Naqada II and III). Northern sites (from about 5500 BC) have yielded datable archaeological material of apparent cultural continuity but no long-term sequences such as those found in the south.
The Time of Muhammad Ali
The French occupation of Egypt in 1798, led by Napoleon Bonaparte, was a brief interlude, for the French never acquired full dominion or control. The grain-producing regions of Upper Egypt remained in Mameluke hands. Napoleon’s invasion was too short-lived to have any lasting impact, but it marked the beginning of a renewed European interest in Egypt. In 1801 an Anglo-Ottoman force expelled the French. For the next few years, struggles between Mamelukes and Ottomans for mastery ruined the country until Muhammad Ali, an Ottoman general of Albanian origin, seized power with the cooperation of the local population. In 1805 the Ottoman sultan declared him the governor of Egypt.
Muhammad Ali, a man of genius, slowly and methodically destroyed or bought off all his opponents until he became the only source of power in the country. To gain control of all the trade routes into Egypt, he embarked on wars of expansion. He first conquered Al Hijaz (the Hejaz, now in Saudi Arabia) in 1819 and Sudan from 1820 to 1822; by 1824 he was ready to help the Ottoman sultan put down an insurrection in Greece. The European powers, however, intervened to halt Egyptian advances in Greece, and Muhammad Ali was forced to withdraw his army. At home, Muhammad Ali encouraged the production of cotton to supply the textile mills of Europe, and he used the profits to finance industrial projects. He established a monopoly over all commodities and imposed trade barriers to nurture industry. He sent Egyptians abroad for technical education and hired experts from Europe to train his army and build his manufacturing industries (which, however, were never as successful as he hoped they would be). In 1831 Muhammad Ali invaded Syria, thereby coming into conflict with his Turkish overlord. The Egyptians defeated the Ottoman armies, and by 1833 they were threatening the Turkish capital, Constantinople (present-day Istanbul). Once again, Russia, Britain, and France intervened, this time to protect the sultan. Muhammad Ali’s forces withdrew, but he was left in control of Syria and Crete. Egyptian expansion and control over trade routes conflicted with Britain’s growing interest in the Middle East as a market for its burgeoning industrial production. The threat to the integrity of the Ottoman Empire also disturbed Britain and roused fears of Russian encroachment in the Mediterranean. For these reasons the British opposed Egypt, and when Muhammad Ali again rebelled against the sultan in 1839, they stepped in for the third time to make him back down. He was offered hereditary possession of Egypt, but had to give up his other conquests and remain an Ottoman vassal.
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