<Special Feature: Revisiting Islam and Politics in Egypt’s “New Republic”>Division Leads to Protests: Divided Structure of Contention and the Emergence of Political Nonviolent Protests in Mubārak’s Egypt

Abstract

Lust-Okar's [2005] divided Structure of Contention has been regarded in studies of authoritarian regimes as an efficient way of preventing opposition groups from cooperating, thus preventing large protests. However, in Egypt, which Lust-Okar used as a case study, political protests and opposition cooperation emerged during the 2000s despite little change in the divided Structure of Contention. This study proposes that the divided Structure of Contention itself sometimes promotes opposition cooperation and protests; the divided Structure of Contention fosters division not only among the opposition groups but also within each of them, and factions excluded from each opposition have an incentive to cooperate with each other and protest. This paper tests this argument through a case study of division within both the legal opposition parties and the Muslim Brotherhood, and through studying those who led the protests during 2000–2005. The case study demonstrates that the benefits derived from the divided Structure of Contention led to exclusion or defection from some legal opposition parties and the Muslim Brotherhood of young and active factions, and the failure of their newly formed political parties (the Karāma Party and the Wasaṭ Party) to gain legality led them to protest the government.