Political And Socio Economic Change In The Middle East And North Africa

Political and Socio-Economic Change in the Middle East and North Africa examines the shortcomings of the economic development policies in the region before and after the Arab uprisings. Many MENA countries tried to pursue neoliberal policies to boost economic growth. However, the outcome was associated with rising and disproportionate unemployment among the youth and women. The focal point of the book is the role of gender and the ways in which policies translate into economic outcomes. Particular attention is paid to women's entrepreneurship, especially as owners of small and medium enterprises, which, as the authors argue, can potentially reduce unemployment and poverty for the population as a whole. The book offers perspectives on wholesome policies that take account of issues concerning gender and youth and, thus, contribute to lower unemployment and reduced poverty and inequity.

Despite its oil wealth, the Middle East and North Africa is economically stagnating. Growth rates are comparatively unfavorable and insufficient to substantially improve citizens’ lives. Whether this economic inertia can be overcome or will continue into the indefinite future is a vital question that confronts both the region and the world. In this book leading Middle East scholar Robert Springborg discusses the economic future of this region by examining the national and regional political causes of its contemporary underperformance. Overgrown, weak MENA states, he explains, have been unable to escape their unfavorable historical legacies. “Limited access orders” and the deep states based in the means of coercion that underpin them undermine state capacities and constrain beneficial, autonomous political and economic activity. Increasingly challenged by their populations, MENA states face the daunting and so far unmet challenge of diversifying non-sustainable, rentier political economies away from direct or indirect dependence on oil and gas revenues. Stagnation of those revenues and failure to generate alternative income sources, combined with rapid population growth, presents the region with an economic challenge that can only be overcome by profound political change.

This book provides political and economic perspectives on social policy and its evolution in countries of the Middle East and North Africa. Chapters on Iran, Turkey, Egypt, Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia analyze its origins in populist or modernizing state activities, its decline in the era of neoliberalism and prospects for its renewal in a democratizing and development context. This book uniquely provides historical and comparative data and a gender analysis of social policy that will be of relevance to specialists in social policy, development and the Middle East.

Offering a comprehensive analysis of the development of economies in the Middle East and North Africa over the past half century, this book charts the progress of these countries through an examination of an Islamic model of economic development, reform processes, and economic integration. Far from being a simple process, economic development in the Middle East and North Africa is dependent on the interaction of a set of changing systems including; international relations, the political regime, economy, and society. By analysing these interdependent factors, The Economic Development Process in MENA seeks to provide answers to the most pressing issues facing the economies in this area. Providing an interpretation of regional development in light of dialectics between state and society, this book will be of value to students and scholars with an interest in the Middle East, Economics, and International Relations.

Taking a comparative approach, this book considers the ways in which political regimes have changed since the Arab Spring. It addresses a series of questions about political change in the context of the revolutions, upheavals and protests that have taken place in North Africa and the Arab Middle East since December 2010, and looks at the various processes have been underway in the region: democratisation (Tunisia), failed democratic transitions (Egypt, Libya and Yemen), political liberalisation (Morocco) and increased authoritarianism (Bahrain, Kuwait, Syria). In other countries, in contrast to these changes, the authoritarian regimes remain intact (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Arab United Emirates.

Africa, The Middle East and the New International Economic Order discusses the relationship between the socio-economic development of Africa and of the Middle East. Divided into two parts, this book first discusses the Sub-Saharan Africa and the New International Economic Order (NIEO), and then tackles North Africa, the Middle East, and the New International Economic Order. The first chapter tackles constraints and opportunities for the NIEO in Sub-Saharan Africa, while the second chapter covers the Sub-Saharan political and economic structures and the NIEO. The third chapter discusses the national development paths in Sub-Saharan Africa and the fourth chapter is about the transnational corporation in Sub-Saharan Africa, with special reference to the Ivory Coast. Chapter 5 considers the NIEO in North Africa and the Middle East; Chapter 6 tackles the obstacles to the establishment of the NIEO in the Middle East and North Africa. The seventh chapter concerns itself with the social and cultural aspects of the NIEO in the Middle East, and the eighth chapter discusses the economic choice of the Arab countries and the NIEO. The last chapter reviews the international trade of North African and The Middle Eastern countries and the NIEO. This book will be of great interest to economists, entrepreneurs, sociologists, and even political analysts, since it covers the socio-economic aspects of a volatile region, which can have a great impact on the world economy.

In the early 1960s the Middle East suffered from political instability, inefficiency of government, widespread poverty and inequality, low productivity, and a mounting population pressure on the region’s resources. With the exception of some of the oil-exporting countries, the entire region still suffers from these same burdens. There have been many studies in the economic development and industrialization of the region in recent years. This study is different, motivated by scepticism and a sense of intellectual frustration and apprehension because of the apparent inadequacy of socioeconomic and political development in the Middle East. First published in 1987.