Economic Crisis and the Politics of Reform in Egypt

Ray Bush

"Economic Crisis and the Politics of Reform in Egypt examines the character of Egypt's economic crisis and the reforms promoted to ameliorate it since the mid-1980s, focusing in particular on the period since 1991. Bush attacks the standard view of the causes of the country's economic problems. He argues that it is based on a misunderstanding of the social organization and economic dynamics of rural Egypt and on a crude conception of the market as an instrument of economic progress. To support his alternative perspective, Bush draws on original research material based on interviews with international agency staff and surveys undertaken in four Egyptian villages. This alternative perspective stresses the importance of the household, rather than the farm, as the unit of social and economic organization, the different and varied strategies that households pursue, the central role of...

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