A Case Study of Egypt: Colonial Legacies and Post-Revolutionary Governance in the 2021-2026 Period

This case study examines how colonial-era administrative structures and legal frameworks continue to shape post-revolutionary governance challenges in Egypt. It posits that contemporary state practices are inextricably embedded within historical processes of colonial state formation. Employing a qualitative historical institutionalist methodology, the research analyses legislative texts, official policy documents, and secondary historical sources to trace institutional path dependencies from the British colonial period to the contemporary governance landscape (2021–2026). The findings demonstrate that centralised security apparatuses and restrictive civil society laws, actively reinforced after 2013, are direct legacies of colonial governance models designed for control. These entrenched institutions have systematically constrained the political agency of women’s rights and feminist movements, a dynamic intensified following the 2023 constitutional amendments. The study concludes that Egypt’s trajectory exemplifies a broader pattern where the postcolonial state has repurposed, rather than dismantled, colonial architectures, thereby perpetuating exclusionary politics. This analysis underscores the necessity of historically grounded, African-centred scholarship to deconstruct the persistent barriers to transformative and inclusive governance on the continent.