2 - 1960s to the 1990s

Summary

Chapter 2 sheds light on the liberals’ public and private work and discourse within the authoritarian and repressive sociopolitical context from the 1960s to the end of the 1990s. It particularly focuses on their “hidden” and not so hidden transcripts, in other words their work beyond their seeming silence and absence, to shed light on their ongoing active engagement despite the contextual conditions forcing them to largely go underground. It argues that while the liberal democrats were eclipsed by the region’s authoritarian regimes, by illiberal leftists, and conservatives such as the pan-Islamists, they nonetheless remained vital and continued to have a sociopolitical impact through other means than via direct political engagement and a focus on the institutions of the State.