Abstract
Heba Handoussa, director of the Cairo-based Economic Research Forum, has observed that “Egypt has always had the political will for reform, but it has dragged on for decades:”1 Reform has “dragged on” because of the state’s limited control over society, particularly over urban popular sectors that have repeatedly brought the process to a halt. Despite pressures from IFIs and local business groups, privatization, since it began in earnest in 1996, has proceeded at a glacial pace largely because labor opposition has thwarted or threatened to thwart divestiture. To counter the opposition of labor and other urban groups, Mubarak is reaching out to the propertied classes and trying to build a pro-reform coalition using the National Democratic Party.
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Notes
Sherine Nasr, “Pushing ahead with Reform,” Al-Ahram Weekl, June 6–12, 2002.
Moheb Zaki, Egyptian Business Elites: Their Vision and Investment Behavio (Cairo: Arab Center for Development and Future Research, 1999), 226.
Edward Gibson, “The Populist Road to Market Reform: Policy and Electoral Coalitions in Mexico and Argentina,” World Politic 49, no. 2 (April 1997) 339–70.
See Robert Mabro, The Egyptian Economy 1952–197 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1974), 154–60.
Saad Eddin Ibrahim and Hans Lofgren, “Successful Adjustment and Declining Governance? The Case of Egypt,” in Governance, Leadership, and Communication: Building Constituencies for Economic Refor, ed. Leila Frischak and Izak Atiyas (Washington, DC: World Bank, 1996), 162.
Ibid.
Howard Handy et al. Egypt: Beyond Stabilization, Toward a Dynamic Market Econom (International Monetary Fund Occasional Paper no. 163, Washington, DC, 1998).
“The IMF’s Model Pupil,” Economis, March 21, 1999. See Simon Bromley and Ray Bush, “Adjustment in Egypt? The Political Economy of Reform,” Review of African Political Econom 60 (1994): 201–13. The authors open their article with the following statement: “Egypt is currently being hailed as an economic success story. Structural adjustment is working,” 201.
Pratt, Nicola “Maintaining the Moral Economy: Egyptian State-Labor Relations in an Era of Economic Liberalization.” Arab Studies Journa, Fall 2000/Spring 2001, 111–29.
World Bank, Global Development Finance 200 (CD-ROM version, vol. 1).
See Huwayda ‘Adli Rouman, Al-haraka al-’ummaliyya wa aliyat muqawamat al-ifqar, 1987–199 (Cairo: Al-Ahali, 1997), 5.
Francoise Clémente, “Libéralisme, restructuration du secteur public et réforme du code du travail,” in Age liberal et neo-liberalisme: VIs recontres franco-egyptiennes de science politique, Dossiers du Cedej, 241–46 (Cairo: CEDEJ, 1996).
Sherine Abdel-Razek, “Much ado about Kima,” Al-Ahram Weekl, October 17–23, 2002.
Joel Beinin and Hossam el-Hamalawy, “Egyptian Textile Workers Confront the New Economic Order,” Middle East Repor, March 25, 2007.
See Agnieszka Paczynska, “Globalization, Structural Adjustment and Pressure to Conform: Contesting Labor Law reform in Egypt,” New Political Scienc 28, no. 1 (March 2006): 60.
Howaida Adly Rouman, “Al-Musharaka al-siyyasiya li al-umal al-misriyin,” in Haqiqat al-t’adudiya al-siyasiya fi Mis, ed. Mustafa Kamel Sayid (Maktabat Madbuli, 1996), 182.
Rehab Saad, “The silent 50% percent,” Al-Ahram Weekl, November 9–15, 2000.
Fatemah Farag, “May Day Dilemmas” Al-Ahram Weekl, May 5, 1999.
Joel Beinin and Hossam el-Hamalawy, “Egyptian Textile Workers:’
Gamal Abdel Nasser Ibrahim, “Representation Syndicale et Transition Libérale en Egypte: Lecture des elections de 1996,” Egypte/Monde Arab 33 (1998): 181–221
Karim El-Gawhary, “‘Nothing More to Lose’: Landowners, Tenants and Economic Liberalization in Egyp,” Middle East Repor 204 ( July—September 1997) 41–48.
See Omar El Shafei, “Workers, Trade Unions and the State in Egypt,” Cairo Papers in Social Scienc, vol. 18, summer (Cairo: American University in Cairo Press, 1995). Paper series published byAUC.
Vickie Langohr, “Too Much Civil Society, Too Little Politics,” Comparative Politic 36, no. 2 (2004): 181–204.
Khaled Ali of the Hisham Mubarak Legal Center notes that the change from appeals courts to courts of first instance had created a backlog of a thousand cases (Fatemah Farag, “Labour backlog,” Al-Ahram Weekl, no. 689, May 6–12, 2004).
Eberhard Kienle, A Grand Delusion: Democracy and Economic Reform in Egyp (London: I. B. Tauris, 2001), 82.
Faiza Rady, “Privatise the unions,” Al-Ahram Weekl, no. 747, June 16–22, 2005. Because of the new law, party leaders like Mohamed Abdelaziz Shaban of the NPUP have joined the call for an independent trade union, as existed prior to 1952, “before being shackled to the ETUF.”
Joel Beinin, “Political Islam and the New Global Economy: The Political Economy of an Egyptian Social Movement,” New Centennial Revie 5, no. 1 (2005): 111–39.
James Toth, “Islamism in Southern Egypt: A Case Study of a Radical Religious Movement,” International Journal of Middle East Studie 35, no. 4 (November 2003): 547–72.
Hossam el-Hamalawy, “Mubarak’s NDP Abducts Egyptian Trade Union Federation,” Arabist. ne, November 29, 2006.
Joel Beinin, “Underbelly of Egypt’s Neoliberal Agenda,” Middle East Repor, May 9, 2007.
Joel Beinin and Hossam el-Hamalawy, “Strikes in Egypt Spread from Center of Gravity,” Middle East Repor, May 9, 2007.
Richard Jacquemond, “Dix ans de justice constitutionelle en Egypte 1979— 1990,” in Politiques legislatives: Egypte, Tunisie, Algerie, Maroc, ed Bernard Botiveau et al., 79–96 (Cairo: CEDEJ, 1994).
See Al Sayed Abdel and Dahroug, “The Executive and the National Democratic Party (NDP),” in The Arab Strategic Repor (Cairo: Al-Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies, 1995).
Samuel Huntington, Political Order in Changing Societie (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1968), 322.
See Ishac Diwan, “Globalization, EU Partnership and Income Distribution in Egypt,” Working Paper no. 1, Egyptian Center for Economic Studies, 1997.
Hans Lofgren, “Egypt’s Program for Stabilization and Structural Adjustment: An Assessment,” Economic and Politics of Structural Adjustment in Egyp (Cairo Papers in Social Science) 16, no. 3 (Fall 1993): 22.
Mubarak told the Washington Time that American aid had helped “in developing [Egyptian] infrastructure and it has helped in the privatization of the economy. It has been a great help to the economy. We don’t forget that” David W. Jones, “Mubarak to Washington Times: Saudi initiative means full Israeli withdrawal” (Washington Time, March 2, 2002). But in a later interview with the Egyptian weekly Rose El Yusu, Mubarak stated that the Bush administration had criticized his government because he doesn’t accept direction from Washington, that “because we don’t listen (to them) and do not bow to anything that does not match with our interests” (Salah Nasrawi, “Mubarak’s son met secretly with Cheney,” Associated Pres, May 15, 2005).
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© 2009 Hishaam D. Aidi
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Aidi, H.D. (2009). State-Labor Relations and Public Sector Reform. In: Redeploying the State. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617902_7
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