Abstract
In the early 1990s, Mubarak tried to rework the Nasserist political formula and craft a new bargain whereby he would grant a degree of political liberalization in return for acquiescence to an adjustment program, but the experiment was abandoned as opposition to economic reform mounted and Islamists exploited the opening. More than a decade after this political endeavor failed, and with privatization stalling, Egyptian state officials are reaching out to the private sector and strategic urban constituencies but also excluding groups seen as anti-reform. This chapter examines how Mubarak is trying to rebuild the state and shift the regime’s social base from left to right, but without the pact-making or participatory programs used in Mexico; political liberalization, it is feared, would unleash organized opposition to economic reform and allow the Muslim Brotherhood to gain a foothold in the state.
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© 2009 Hishaam D. Aidi
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Aidi, H.D. (2009). Shifting the State from Left to Right. In: Redeploying the State. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617902_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230617902_8
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