Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer
SP baner

Vol. 46 No. 3 (2018)

Political systems

Informal Politics and the National Democratic Party in Egypt Before 2011

DOI: https://doi.org/10.35757/STP.2018.46.3.02
Submitted: April 22, 2025
Published: September 20, 2018

Abstract

This paper aims to analyze informal institutions in nondemocratic regimes using the example of Egypt’s National Democratic Party (NDP) before 2011. As a platform enabling the creation and replication of patronage networks, the NDP played a central role in the transformation of the Egyptian governing system into a semi-authoritarian or hybrid regime. In the context of reforms liberalizing the Egyptian economic system, the transformation of the regime was accompanied by the rise of crony capitalism, whose central element was the informal institution of clientelism. These transformations contributed to the political liberalization of the 1970s and 1980s, and then to the hybridization of authoritarianism in Egypt before the Arab Spring.

References

  • Amin G., Egypt in the Era of Hosni Mubarak: 1981–2011, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2010, pp. 21–43.
  • Beinin J., “Neo-Liberal Structural Adjustment, Political Demobilization and Neo-Authoritarianism in Egypt,” in: L. Guazzone, D. Pioppi, (eds), The Arab State and Neo-Liberal Globalization: The Restructuring of State Power in the Middle East, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2009, pp. 19–46.
  • Blaydes L., Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2011.
  • Carothers T., “The End of Transition Paradigm,” Journal of Democracy, Vol. 13, No. 1, 2002, pp. 5–21.
  • Górak-Sosnowska K., “Wasta (klientelizm) a rozwój społeczno-gospodarczy w świecie arabskim” [“Wastah (Clientelism) and Socio-Economic Development in the Arab World”], in: K. Górak-Sosnowska, J. Jurewicz (eds.), Kulturowe uwarunkowania rozwoju w Azji i Afryce [Cultural Determinants of Development in Asia and Africa], Ibidem, Łódź 2010, pp. 255–266.
  • Guazzone L., Pioppi D., “Interpreting Change in the Arab World,” in: L. Guazzone, D. Pioppi, (eds), The Arab State and Neo-Liberal Globalization: The Restructuring of State Power in the Middle East, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2009, pp. 1–15.
  • Haber S., “Introduction: The Political Economy of Crony Capitalism,” in: S. Haber (ed.), Crony Capitalism and Economic Growth in Latin America: Theory and Evidence, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford 2002, p. xii.
  • Helmke G., Levitsky S., Introduction, in: G. Helmke, S. Levitsky (eds.), Informal Institutions and Democracy: Lessons from Latin America, The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2006, pp. 1–25.
  • Holzer J., Stępniewska-Holzer B., Egipt. Niespełniona rewolucja [Egypt: An Unfinished Revolution], Instytut Studiów Politycznych Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Warsaw, 2016, p. 43.
  • Ikram Kh., The Egyptian Economy, 1952–2000. Performance Policies and Issues, Routledge, London–New York 2006, pp. 63–84.
  • Kandil H., Soldiers, Spies, and the Stateman. Egypt’s Road to Revolt, Verso, London–New York 2014, pp. 56–168, 209-212, 214-216.
  • Kassem M., Egyptian Politics: The Dynamics of Authoritarian Rule, Lynne Rienner Publishers, Boulder-London 2004.
  • Kienle E., A Grand Delusion: Democracy and Economic Reform in Egypt, I.B. Tauris, London–York 2001.
  • King S.J., The New Authoritarianism in the Middle East and North Africa, Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2009, pp. 7–15, 94–113.
  • Lipa M., Autorytaryzm i liberalizacja gospodarcza w Egipcie [Authoritarianism and Economic Liberalization in Egypt], Instytut Kultur Śródziemnomorskich i Orientalnych Polskiej Akademii Nauk, Warsaw 2016, pp. 30–41.
  • Menza M.F., Patronage Politics in Egypt. The National-Democratic Party and Muslim Brotherhood in Cairo, Routledge, London–New York 2013, pp. 108–112, 144.
  • O’Donnell G., “Another Institutionalization: Latin America and Elsewhere,” Kellogg Institute, Working Paper No. 222, Kellogg Institute for International Studies, Notre Dame, March 1996.
  • Ottaway M., Democracy Challenged. The Rise of Semi-Authoritarianism, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Washington 2003, p. 6.
  • Paczyńska A., State, Labor, and the Transition to a Market Economy. Egypt, Poland, Mexico, and the Czech Republic, Pennsylvania State University Press, Pennsylvania 2009, pp. 167–168.
  • Roniger L., “Political Clientelism, Democracy, and Market Economy,” Comparative Politics, Vol. 36, No. 3 (April, 2004), p. 354.
  • Rutherford B.K., Egypt after Mubarak: Liberalism, Islam, and Democracy in the Arab World, Princeton University Press, Princeton 2008, pp. 218–224.
  • Soliman S., The Autumn of Dictatorship: Fiscal Crisis and Political Change in Egypt under Mubarak, Stanford University Press, Stanford 2011, p. 27.
  • Springborg R., Family, Power, and Politics in Egypt: Sayed Bey Marei–His Clan, Clients, and Cohorts, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia 1982.
  • Stracher J., Adaptable Autocrats: Regime Power in Egypt and Syria, 2012, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo 2012, pp. 98–207.
  • Zdanowski J., Bliski Wschód 2011: bunt czy rewolucja? [The Middle East 2011: Rebellion or Revolution?], Oficyna Wydawnicza AFM, Kraków 2011.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Similar Articles

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 > >> 

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.