Overview

For years prior to the Arab Spring, opposition activists in Egypt organized protests with limited success. So why and how did thousands of Egyptian citizens suddenly take to the streets against the Mubarak regime in January 2011? Contesting the Repressive State not only answers this question but asks specifically why and how people who are not part of political movements choose to engage or not engage in anti-government protest under repressive regimes. Kira D. Jumet argues that individuals are rational actors and their decisions to protest or not protest are based on the intersection of three factors: political opportunity structures, mobilizing structures, and framing processes. Based on 170 interviews conducted in Egypt during the Arab Spring, Kira D. Jumet explores how social media, violent government repression, changes in political opportunities, and the military influenced individual decisions to protest or not protest during the 2011 Revolution, Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) transitional period, and the June 30, 2013 uprising.

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9780190688455

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Reviews

By examining the emotions and rationale of the participants, Professor Jumet has breathed life into the academic study of Egypt's 2011 revolution. This is a fascinating review of events that confounded many experts, including my colleagues in the State Department. Days before the revolution, I was telling my friends in Cairo, 'It can't happen here'- yet it did- and Jumet explains why. --Edward S. Walker, Jr., Former US Ambassador to Egypt and the UAE Kira D. Jumet combines a sophisticated understanding of social movement theory with the kind of fingertip feel for Egypt and its people that can only come from years of in-depth fieldwork. Contesting the Repressive State is an important contribution to our understandings of Egyptian politics, the Arab Spring, and the dynamics of protest. --Tarek Masoud, Sultan of Oman Professor of International Relations, Harvard University Drawing on rich ethnographic research, Kira D. Jumet offers a vivid and theoretically astute, yet empirically grounded, contribution that illuminates the dynamics of the Egyptian uprising specifically as well as the dynamics of protest in general. --Eva Bellin, Myra and Robert Kraft Professor of Arab Politics, Brandeis University

Author Information

Kira D. Jumet is Assistant Professor of Government at Hamilton College.

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