Economic Liberalization and Authoritarianism: A Comparative Political Economy of Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, and Morocco, 1950-2011

by Christian Neugebauer

Overview

Contrary to other world regions, political regimes in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) remain largely authoritarian. While the search for explanations is still ongoing, Christian Neugebauer draws attention to a hitherto underresearched factor: economic liberalization. Being part of a global shift from state-led development towards structural adjustment in the economy, these policies also deeply affected the countries of the MENA region. This makes the resilience of authoritarianism in the region all the more puzzling, as a large part of the scientific community expected economic liberalization to undermine authoritarian regimes. Neugebauer strives to solve the puzzle with a comparative case study that covers four countries (Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, and Morocco) and their political regimes, from independence in the 1950s to the Arab Spring in 2011. He shows that two specific policies of economic liberalization might in fact have been relevant for regime stability: consumer-price liberalization and privatization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9783658356385
Publisher:	Springer Fachmedien Wiesbaden
Publication date:	12/01/2021
Series:	Politik und Gesellschaft des Nahen Ostens
Edition description:	1st ed. 2022
Pages:	653
Product dimensions:	5.83(w) x 8.27(h) x (d)

About the Author

Christian Neugebauer was a PhD candidate and lecturer in political economy of the Middle East and North Africa at the Center for Near and Middle Eastern Studies (CNMS), University of Marburg, Germany. He currently works as a regional expert (Middle East, North Africa, and Turkey) for an institution of the private economy.

Table of Contents

Introduction.- Key terms.- Theory and state of the art.- Theoretical model and hypotheses.- Epistemology, methodology, methods.- Empirical analysis—Economic liberalization and the stability of authoritarian regimes in resource-poor countries of the MENA region: Egypt, Tunisia, Jordan, and Morocco,1950–2011.- Conclusion