Will democracy win in Egypt?

Protesters demanding the ouster of Hosni Mubarak's regime continue to gain momentum. Is Egypt heading for Western-style elections — or more repression?

Protesters have gathered in Egypt's central Liberation Square for a week straight while security measures increase and concerns over violence grow.
(Image credit: Getty)

Egypt's anti-government protests are continuing to intensify, with organizers planning a "march of millions" for Tuesday. Opposition groups, including the secular democracy advocates and the Muslim Brotherhood, an Islamist group, banded together behind Mohamed ElBaradei, a Nobel-winning diplomat and prominent government critic, demanding that President Hosni Mubarak resign immediately and hand over power to a transitional government. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for an "orderly transition" to a more open political system and free elections. Is Egypt finally headed for real democracy? (Watch The Week's Sunday Talk Show Briefing about Obama's Egypt dilemma)

Sorry, democracy is still a long shot: "This is not a choice between the Mubarak government on one hand, and sweetness-and-light, Jeffersonian democracy on the other," former United Nations ambassador John Bolton tells Fox News. The military is the "real government," and it won't "go peacefully." And if the Muslim Brotherhood comes out on top, "you're not going to have free and fair elections either." It wants to replace the secular government with an Islamist one — it "doesn't care about democracy."

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