Search Results

As authoritarian regimes do not rest only on repression, the Mubarak's one had to rely on ideology and money. Mubarak's fall should be explained by the weakening of his mechanisms of control in these two fields. The objective of this chapter is to explain the transformation of the Egyptian political economy and how it brought the demise of the Egyptian regime. This transformation should not be reduced to a certain ‘economic crisis’ and a rising social discontent, although it certainly includes such a variable. In fact, under Mubarak the state has lost much of easy public revenues or rent coming from foreign aid, oil and Suez Canal revenues. Taxing the population has become a necessity. The State has been in the process of change from a semi-rentier state to a tax state[i]. This structural change helped transforming Egyptians from subjects to citizens. In addition, the contraction of public revenues limited the ‘political purchasing power’ of the regime, hence reducing the number of its dependents and supporters and created a process of fragmentation of political power. For more than two decades, Mubarak maneuvered in order to lessen the political outcomes of this transformation in the political economy of the country. But finally, structural factors imposed their outcome on Egyptian politics and they helped the fall of Mubarak. [i] The analysis of the end of the semi rentier state in Egypt is based on our earlier work: Samer Soliman. The Autumn of Dictatorship. Fiscal Crisis and Political Change in Egypt under Mubarak. (Stanford: Stanford university press, 2011).

This chapter examines the social mechanisms that contribute to the construction of representations guiding public action in Algeria, which continue to place the hydrocarbons sector at the heart of economic and social development. This leads to excessive state interventionism, the chapter argues. By delving into the concept of rentier states and “resource curses”, the chapter seeks to explain the inner workings of the patronage networks and interrelationships between dominant actors defending their interests, seeking to uphold the status quo in Algeria’s political and economic spheres. The chapter argues that the economic policies of Abdelaziz Bouteflika reflect an inability to reshape Algeria’s economic foundations, defined by an urge to maintain an essentialist reading of Algerian state identity and the energy sector forming the basis for the entire social structure.

Chapter 1 shows how the Gulf countries have been affected by the global food crisis of 2008 and how they have reacted to it. Basic challenges of Gulf food security are outlined such as population growth, lack of water, economic diversification, and vulnerability of poor migrant workers. The role of subsidies and price controls in the ruling bargain of the region’s rentier states is highlighted. Causes and consequences of the global food crisis are given. After a discussion of major factors like productivity development, biofuels, or dietary change, the chapter posits that there is reasonable indication for a paradigm shift towards higher food prices. It is then shown how the Gulf countries currently operate in global food trade and what items they import from which countries of origin.