Egypt, designed for dictatorship?

Egypt's government: designed for dictatorship - Opinion - Al Jazeera English:

Egypt’s government is designed for a dictatorship: It is extremely centralised and tightly controlled by national policy, and local councils are void of power. Although Cairo’s three governorates have separate budgets and various departments, they largely depend on the country’s ministries, led by presidentially appointed ministers, to care for essential elements of the urban environment: housing, schooling, transport, parks, healthcare, etc. Governorate budgets largely go to paying salaries rather than public spending. There is no unified city government with elected local officials and a mandate to effectively manage the city. Instead, governors do the occasional ribbon-cutting, and make hollow announcements regarding randomly selected projects that suit their whimsy.

A good piece on Cairo's governance as a metaphor for the country's by Mohamed ElShahed. This kind of stuff is part of what has to change in the way the country is managed. Also, informal areas are as much designed for corruption and the rise of a mafia state as they are for autocracy.

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[Manuel Almeida]

The Brothers and the Generals: Why Egypt is still far away from its Turkish model ...

Tensions between the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood—who have a broad popular support base—and the ruling Supreme Council of the Armed Forces threaten to derail the smooth transition of the country in the post Mubarak era. While there are a number of issues that can be a source of disagreement between the generals and the MB, there are also pragmatic reasons for them to cooperate, at least in the short term. In this context, are there lessons to be learned from the Turkish example?

http://www.majalla.com/eng/2011/10/article55226785