ABSTRACT
A study of the internal politics of any authoritarian country (by ‘authoritarian’ I mean without institutional opposition) such as Egypt since 1952, should concentrate on the ideas of the ruling group, the struggles between this group and other social forces, the competition inside the group, and finally on attempts to establish in the country a political structure conforming to the ideology of its rulers. Competition and struggle between pressure groups, which provide the background of political life in pluralistic societies, are not completely absent in Egypt. They may exist, however, in a somewhat different guise. As in the case of any authoritarian country, while the leaders' ideology plays a fundamental role, political development, however, is shaped by the interaction of this ideology and the constraints arising from the external and internal situation of the country.
