Suchergebnisse

This study of politics and the role of the state in the Arab world is aimed at students of Middle East politics, political theory and political economy. Ayubi's main objective is to place the Arab world within a theoretical framework that avoids both ""orientalist"" and ""fundamentalist"" insistence on the utter peculiarity and uniqueness of the region. He focuses on eight countries, and deals with such issues as the emergence of social classes, corporatism, economic liberalization and the relationship between state and civil society

The historical Islamic state developed interesting methods of quasi-consociational and semi-corporatist aggregation of communities. From quite early on, Sunnism became the religion of the ruling elite and of the state as well as part of the state's legal and cultural system. Subsequently, the geographical distribution and the political economy of the Islamic sects and of the religious minorities manifested quite distinct features that were mainly a function of their relationship to the state. Whereas the Islamic sects did not come to terms ideologically and organizationally with the state, the religious minorities, on the whole, adjusted themselves mentally and behaviorally to its requirements. By comparison, the contemporary Middle Eastern state, both the secular and the Islamic, is achieving less success in dealing with its communal problem. Certain groups are excluded in the former type in spite of the secularist slogans, and certain groups are excluded in the latter because of the ideological or religious nature of the state. Improvisation is needed, and Muslim statesmen and intellectuals may need to go beyond, and even outside, conventional Islamic jurisprudence in order to deal with this issue.

In spite of the adoption of an open door economic policy, the size of the Egyptian bureaucracy continues to grow, and its control functions remain quite significant. There is very little retrenchment in the economic role of the bureaucracy, although that role is now much less integrated with any comprehensive plans for national development. The main preference seems to be for ajoint venture formula between the public sector and foreign capital. The most important casuality of this practice has been the Egyptian public sector itself.