Economic Development and Political Reform

The people of the Middle East face puzzling political realities as they enter the new millennium. Robust Western-style democracies have not yet emerged in the Middle East, yet at the same time, many Middle Eastern countries have experienced an important increase in political liberties in the last two decades.Economic Development and Political Reform addresses critical trends in the Middle Eastern political economy in the 1980s and 1990s and builds upon the cross-regional political science literature concerning political and economic reforms in the developing world. The book argues that external capital has had a decisive impact on economic and political development in the region. The author focuses mainly on Turkey, Morocco, Egypt and Kuwait and also considers important developments in other Middle Eastern countries. He demonstrates that Middle Eastern states lacking substantial exogenous revenues - including oil and foreign aid - have experienced severe fiscal crises and have been forced to pursue neo-liberal economic strategies. By contrast, those states with greater exogenous resources have undergone milder economic crises and developed more populist economic models. Providing new theoretical perspectives on Third World political and economic reform, this innovative volume will be of particular interest to political economists, international governmental and developmental organizations, international financial institutions and non-governmental organizations in this region.