The generals' slow and unsteady march to democracy

摘要

THE last time Egypt's army seized power, in 1952, it promised a swift return to civilian rule. Instead, Egyptians got six decades of autocracy, with generals manning the machinery of state behind a patchy sham of democracy. Even so most people were overjoyed last February when the generals, responding to weeks of massive protests, stepped out from behind their veil, fired the president-for-life, Hosni Mubarak, sent his rubber-stamp parliament packing and promised a swift transition to proper democracy.