Politics from above politics from below : The middle East in the age of economic reform

Even today, economic liberalization is widely supposed to replace the tyranny of the state with the freedom of the individual and, therefore, the uniformity of politics from above with the liveliness and colour of politics from below. This book analyses developments in the Middle East, arriving at far less reassuring conclusions: that economic liberalization has failed to entail the continuous growth and widespread welfare gains expected by its proponents; and that by privileging privatization and crony capitalism over competitive but regulated markets and political reform, it has also failed to decentralize and democratize the allocation of resources, be they material or symbolic, to enable individuals to participate meaningfully in the production of social norms. Contributors include Roger Owen, Sami Zubaida, Valentine M. Moghadam, Jean-Noel Ferrié, Enid Hill, Ulrich G. Wurzel, Ray Bush, Baudouin Dupret, Cilja Harders, Armando Salvatore, Reem Saad, Nadje Sadig el-Ali, Amr Hamzawi, Fanny Colonna and Reinoud Leenders.

Contents:
Acknowledgements;
Note on transliteration;
Introduction;
One: Capitalism, democracy, the 'public sphere' and globalization / Sami Zubaida --
Two: Liberalizing economies and organizing women: changing norms and resource allocations in the Arab Mediterranean / Valentine M. Moghadam --
Three: Entering the 'virtuous circle': the strength of democratic designs in Egypt and Morocco / Jean-Noël Ferrié --
Four: Norms and distributive processes in Egypt's new regime of capitalist accumulation / Enid Hill --
Five: Meso-level structures as preconditions for collective action and social integration / Ulrich G. Wurzel --
Six: Modernizing agriculture or underdeveloping the countryside? Competing views on policy and farming in Egypt / Ray Bush --
Seven: Domesticating economic liberalization: controlled market-building in contemporary Egypt / Eberhard Kienle --
Eight: What constitutes business rationalisty in Egypt at the end of the twentieth century: a political economy approach / Roger Owen --
Nine: A liberal interpretation of a socialist constitution: the Eyptian Supreme Constitutional Court and privatization of the public sector / Baudouin Dupret --
Ten: The informal social pact: the state and the urban poor in Cairo / Cilja Harders --
Eleven: Decentring social services and recentring normative authority: Mustafa Mahmud's social and public Islam / Amrando Salvatore --
Twelve: A moral order reversed? Agricultural land changes hands, again / Reem Saad --
Thirteen: A mirror of political culture in contemporary Egypt: divisions and debates among women activists / Nadje Sadig al-Ali --
Fourteen: The local deconstruction of global events, news and discoures: case studies from Egypt / Amr Hamzawi --
Fifteen: How the centre sees the muhajirin of knowledge: normative processes vs demographic evidence / Fanny Colonna --
Sixteen: Public means to private ends: state building and power in post-war Lebanon / Reinoud Leenders;
Index.