User:Al Ameer son/Nasser's ideology

Although Nasser held views that would become themes of his presidency he was essentially a political pragmatist with no rigid attachment to ideology. According to historian Elie Podeh, the basic task Nasser sought to accomplish was the political and economic freedom of the Egyptian people.

Nasser's socioeconomic background played a formative role in his political ideology. Like most Egyptians of his time, British control over Egypt and the country's poor social, economic and political conditions were intimately connected. This view was reflected during Nasser's presidency where socioeconomic justice and national independence were prioritized over greater political participation and the concept of checks and balances, both of which were lacking during his administration. According to Aburish, the combination of living in so many cities did not distress Nasser during his youth, but instead broadened his horizons, allowing him to become aware of the class divisions in Egyptian society. Despite frequently changing schools, Nasser spent most of his spare time reading, particularly in 1933 when his uncle happened to live near the National Library of Egypt. In addition to the Qur'an, the sayings of Muhammad, and the lives of the Sahaba (Muhammad's companions), he read the works of Napoleon, Gandhi, Voltaire, Victor Hugo, Charles Dickens and others. He was greatly influenced by the Egyptian nationalist politician Mustafa Kamel, and poet Ahmed Shawqi.

Nasser held a deep conviction that democracy and multiparty participation required the development of social and economic equality beforehand—a view generally held by other Third World revolutionary leaders during Nasser's time. He dismissed the form of political democracy in place during the monarchy years prior to the 1952 revolution as merely procedural and a "dictatorship of feudalism and capital ... that used democracy to preserve the rule of the owning class." Moreover, he considered the establishment of a liberal democracy in Egypt at a time when social inequality and quasi-feudalism in society was pervasive to be counterproductive to the pursuit of social justice, national independence and economic progress.

For the most part, the concept of freedom to Nasser pertained to independence from foreign influence and meddling in domestic affairs, and the economic freedom of the peasantry (fellahin) from the landowning pasha class. Nasser generally associated the concept of justice with social justice, instead of the traditional liberal interpretation of justice as a legal and judicially procedural matter. Social justice for all citizens and classes at the national level, and among equal and sovereign nations at the international level was a defining theme of Nasser's presidency. Additionally, Nasser saw that the army should play a central role in state affairs and serving as the revolution's vanguard, viewing it as the principal mechanism capable of ending political corruption and mass poverty in Egypt. The centrality of the army was demonstrated by the influential posts officers occupied in Egypt's executive branch, legislature and diplomatic corps.

The principal documents that defined Nasserist political thought was the Philosophy of the Revolution, the 1962 National Charter, the National Action program and the March 1968 declaration.

The memoirs were unfinished, but according to its English translator Walid Khalidi, they serve as a rare source on Nasser's military thinking, his attitude toward peace and war, and the state of the Egyptian army during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War.