L'Egitto è pronto per la democrazia?

Il Guardian lo chiede all'esperto di cose arabe Brian Whitaker, mentre Il Cairo è in fiamme.

A question about an Eqyptian democracy... is there a basis for hope? is there a political culture that can step up to represent the people and what role will youth play in the new landscape?

Egypt already has the infrastructure to turn into a working democracy -- elected parliament, long-established political parties, etc. The problem is the the NDP has monopolised this system for a very long time.
So the transition to a working democracy would not be all that difficult, though I would expect it to be a somewhat flawed democracy for some time - maybe like some of the East European or Latin American countries.
One problem is that most of the opposition parties are just as hidebound as the regime. The younger "Facebook generation" doesn't seem to have much interest in them and prefers to do things in its own way. Youth movements are going to become more and more important, and they are a very hopeful sign.

What are the chances that all this could be repeated in Syria?

I was discussing that with an Arab friend yesterday. We both felt that it would be very difficult at present in Syria to organise the kind of protests seen in Tunisia and Egypt. One thing you need for it to happen is a civil society structure of some kind, whether it's trade unions, opposition parties or NGOs, plus a lot of internet users. I don't think Syria has that. Instead, it as a very proficient secret police.
That said, I would expect the Syrian regime to be very scared. Yemenis have told me of the panic in the Marxist regime in the PDRY following the revolution in Romania in 1989 -- they feared it could happen to them. I would expect similar fears in the Syrian regime.
Who knows? Could they be the ones who decide to reform rather than waiting to be toppled?

How likely do you think it is that these uprisings will drive Egypt & Tunisia towards democracy? Is it likely that these situations will descend into sectarian or ethnic conflict as we seen in Kyrgyzstan last year?

Adapting to democracy will be a lot easier in Tunisia and Egypt than it was in Iraq. There are no major ethnic issues; Egypt does have something of a sectarian problem but it is not insurmountable.