Subdivisions of Egypt

History

Ancient history

Upon unification of Egypt around 3100 BCE, ancient Egypt was fundamentally divided into two geographical macro-regions: Upper Egypt (the southern Nile Valley) and Lower Egypt (the northern Nile Delta). These were further subdivided into 42 administrative districts called nomes (22 in the South, 20 in the North), governed by appointed nomarchs.

Medieval history

After the 9th century, medieval Egypt transitioned from a unified provincial territory into a highly militarized independent state divided into macro-regions and micro-provinces. The central government controlled the country through cadastral land surveys (known as Rawk), which allocated lands as military fiefs (Iqta) to the ruling local elite.

Modern history

Centralization after the 1952 revolution

Before the 1952 Egyptian revolution, state penetration of the rural areas was limited by the power of local notables. Under Nasser, land reform reduced those notables' socioeconomic dominance, and the peasants were incorporated into cooperatives, which transferred mass dependence from landlords to the government. The extension of officials into the countryside permitted the regime to bring development and services to the village. The local branches of the ruling party, the Arab Socialist Union (ASU), fostered a certain peasant political activism and coopted the local notables — in particular, the village headmen — and checked their independence from the regime.

Until 1979, local government enjoyed limited power in Egypt's highly centralised state. Under the central government, there were twenty-six governorates (27 today), which were subdivided into counties (In Arabic: مركز markaz "center", plural: مراكز marākiz), each of which was further subdivided into towns or villages. At each level, there was a governing structure that combined representative councils and government-appointed executive organs headed by governors, district officers, and mayors, respectively. Governors were appointed by the president, and they, in turn, appointed subordinate executive officers. The coercive backbone of the state apparatus ran downward from the Ministry of Interior through the governors' executive organs to the district police station and the village headman.

Decentralisation under Sadat

State penetration did not retreat under Anwar Sadat, though the earlier effort to mobilize peasants and deliver services disappeared as the local party and cooperative withered. However, administrative controls over the peasants remained intact. The local power of the old families and the headmen revived but more at the expense of peasants than at the expense of the state. The district police station balanced the notables, and the system of local government (the mayor and council) integrated them into the regime.

Sadat took several measures to administratively decentralise power to the provinces and towns, with limited fiscal and almost no political decentralisation. Governors acquired more authority under Law 43/1979, which reduced the administrative and budgetary controls of the central government over the provinces. The elected councils acquired, at least formally, the right to approve or disapprove the local budget. In an effort to reduce local demands on the central treasury, local government was given wider powers to raise local taxes. Local representative councils became vehicles of pressure for government spending, and the soaring deficits of local government bodies had to be covered by the central government. Local government was encouraged to enter into joint ventures with private investors, and these ventures stimulated an alliance between government officials and the local rich that paralleled the infitah alliance at the national level.

Under Mubarak

Under president Hosni Mubarak's rule (1981–2011), decentralisation continued to evolve. Some scholars believed local autonomy was achieved, as local policies often reflected special local conditions. Thus, officials in Upper Egypt often bowed to the powerful Islamic movement there, while those in the port cities struck alliances with importers.

However, others found that local governance proved impotent. Parliamentarians were reduced to the roles of local councillors, lobbying at the parliamentary level for basic local services, while the elected Local Popular Councils (LPC) had a parallel ceremonial role to the appointed Local Executive Councils (LEC), which managed the local departments.

In April 2008, two new governorates were created through presidential decree: Helwan Governorate (separated from Cairo Governorate) and the 6th of October Governorate (separated from Giza Governorate). Luxor was also officially upgraded from a city with special status to a full governorate in December 2009.

Elections of the LPCs have also been observed to be fraudulent. The ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) won 95 percent of local council seats during the last election in 2008, with 84 percent of the seats won unopposed.

Post-2011 revolution

After Mubarak was deposed by the popular uprising of the January 2011, parliament and local councils were dissolved pending the writing of a new constitution. The interim government dissolved both the Helwan and 6th of October governorates, reincorporating them back into Cairo Governorate and Giza Governorate respectively. The short-lived 2012 constitution and the current 2014 version gave wider local power through more decentralisation.

However, by the end of 2022, these provisions had yet to be implemented, as the government prolonged the process of drafting a new local administration law, leaving LPC seats vacant for over a decade.

List of governorates

Egypt is divided into 27 governorates (muhāfazāt), each with a capital and at least one other city. Each governorate is administered by a governor (muhāfiz) who is appointed by the President of Egypt and serves at the president's discretion. Most governorates have a population density of more than one thousand per km², while the three largest have a population density of less than two per km². Administratively, the vast majority of the area of the Sinai Peninsula is divided into two governorates: the South Sinai Governorate and North Sinai Governorate. Three other governorates span the Suez Canal, crossing into African Egypt: Suez Governorate on the southern end of the Suez Canal, Ismailia Governorate in the center, and Port Said Governorate in the north.

List of municipal divisions

As of 2013, there were 351 subdivisions, of which 177 were qisms, 162 marakiz, 9 new cities, and 3 police-administered areas. There are also unorganized areas in the Alexandria, Aswan, Asyut, Beheira, Beni Suef, Cairo, Dakahlia, Damietta, Faiyum, Giza, Ismailia, Kafr El Sheikh, Luxor, Minya, Port Said, Qalyubia, Qena, Sharqia, Sohag, and Suez governorates.

Demographics

Urbanization

Population density

Information for population is in thousands, pop density - persons/km² and area is in km².