ABSTRACT
The constitution and legal system of any country provide the basic institutional framework within which the political order and the various political forces in the society, including political parties, operate. It is therefore important to present a brief description of the Egyptian political system with its three branches, the executive, the legislative and the judicial, and to assess the relationship between them, as embodied in the constitution and as actually practised in order to highlight the inherent contradictions which exist in the system. A historical background for the change to a multi-party system as well as a brief assessment of the government's ruling party will also be presented in this chapter.
