Abstract
Egypt’s contentious constitution‐writing activity is a fundamentally political process. The protagonists are new and old collective actors striving to defend their interests and secure their place in the emergent political order. Writing the Egyptian constitution is neither an abstract, idealized exercise of normative deliberation nor a sinister attempt by Islamists to hoard the fruits of the popular uprising. Still less is it a battle between disembodied competing “isms” such as Islamism versus secular nationalism, or modernism versus atavism. Such melodramatic accounts of the constitution‐drafting experience as a tussle between good guys and bad guys or a showdown between rival worldviews may make for satisfying stories, but miss the more prosaic and far‐reaching significance of Egypt’s contemporary constitutional moment. The constitution as both process and final product is better understood as a grand bargain between identifiable political interest groups of unequal stature. All are seeking to insert their preferences into the document by relying on a mix of brinkmanship, grandstanding, cajoling, and settling for their second‐ or third‐best choices.