Great Minds Think Alike

Ok, my mind is not so great as those of Will Moore and Christian Davenport, but I was glad to hear that I am not alone: the Egyptian political change of 2011 was not a revolution but a coup.  I made this distinction before: here and here.  Changing the leader and changing the political system are entirely two separate things, whether one needs heaps of social change (Skocpol) to count a political change as a revolution.

Mubarak was a former military commander, leading an authoritarian regime.  The "transitional" military folks running Egypt now are leading an authoritarian regime that has a patina of democracy gloss.  Events of this past week suggest that little has fundamentally changed: serious repression when dissent gets to be a bit troublesome.  Sure, constitutions are being written, but until they are actually implemented and until they re-distribute power away from the military, not a revolution, not a regime change, just a coup. 

Do listen to the Will and Chris podcast for a discussion of coups versus revolutions but also far more than that, as they consider the coverage by the media in depth, and raise all kinds of good questions, including:

Who should the media be talking to?  Area experts may know Egypt or Tunisia or Syria well, but if they do not study dissent, social movements and/or repression, how much insight can they shed?