Hamed El-Said

Economic liberalisation, social capital and Islamic welfare provision.

Economic liberalisation programmes have been introduced to several countries in the Middle East and North Africa in recent years, with the World Bank and IMF promoting this reform. The inevitable retrenchment of the state under liberalisation has arguably opened up a space for Islamic-based activities related to welfare provision. This book looks at two aspects of Islamic activity in the Middle East and North Africa: the development of social capital and the provision of welfare services, especially in the area of health and education. With in-depth country studies of Jordan, Egypt, Morocco and Tunisia, this book explores the differing experiences in the MENA countries, which range from the Tunisian experience, in which state welfare provision actually increased under liberalisation, to the experience of Jordan and Egypt, where increased poverty and a decline in the quality of state welfare provision under liberalisation has led to a large increase in Islamic welfare activities to the extent that the Muslim Brotherhood has gained considerable political capital, and now represents the main opposition to incumbent regimes in these two countries. This book provides a detailed examination of the social impact of economic liberalisation in the Middle East and North Africa, using the social capital concept to analyse the Islamic response to welfare changes. With a comprehensive and detailed analysis of four MENA countries and their varying experiences of economic liberalisation, this book is essential reading for all interested in welfare, liberalisation and political economy in the Middle East and North Africa.

Globalization, international finance, and political islam in the Arab World

This article looks at one important aspect of globalization in the Arab World, namely the provision of international finance by the US, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), and the World Bank in support of economic liberalization programs. This flow of international finance has been partly determined by geopolitical factors and in some countries has resulted in a decline in state provision of social welfare, increased poverty, and increased inequality. Not only has this form of globalization been increasingly challenged by Islamist groups, but many such groups have moved in to provide social capital and fill the welfare gap created by the gradual withdrawal of the state from socio-economic affairs. Globalization has thus strengthened the hand of political Islam and undermined the political legitimacy of incumbent regimes.

Sectoral collective agreements: Remuneration straitjackets for German workplaces?

Purpose – This paper aims to map some of the diversity in employee relations in Germany that is overlooked, first, within assessments of the German labour market that focus on the national level and second, within separate studies in this area that emphasize attempts by employers to circumvent important institutions.Design/methodology/approach – The research adopts a quantitative approach to examine data for German manufacturing and service sectors on both the spread of industry‐wide collective agreements and the extent to which workers are paid wage rates that are higher than those set out in those agreements. It also assesses the prevalence of profit sharing and employee share ownership schemes.Findings – Industry‐wide collective agreements are not the burden that they are often portrayed. Actual wage rates and the prevalence of profit sharing and ESOSs make German workplaces more heterogeneous than critics and advocates of the German economic model posit.Research limitations/implications – The data are...

Institutions and Joint Ventures in the Mid dle East and North Af rica: The Case of Jor dan

Abstract Many Mid dle East ern and North Af ri can (MENA) coun -tries are mak ing val iant ef forts to re form their eco nomic sys tems to boost growth and liv ing stan dards. Mul ti na tional Com panies (MNCs) are generally thought to have a ma jor part to play in help ing these coun tries to de velop. The prob lems caused by gov ern men tal sys tems that placed legal and bu reau cratic ob sta cles and pro hi bi tions in the way of For eign Direct In vest ment (FDI) ac tiv i ties are un der at tack in many coun tries. The World Bank (WB) and the In ter na tional Mon e tary Fund (IMF) in sist on the adop tion of busi ness-friendly pol i cies for those coun tries that seek their aid. More over, mem ber ship of the World Trade Or ga ni za tion (WTO) also re quires coun tries to re form their gov ern men tal sys tems. The prize at the end of the pain ful re form pro cess is higher growth of ten driven by FDI ac tiv i ties. In re cent years, FDI to de vel op ing and for mer com mu nist coun tries has con sid er ably in creased. How ever, some de vel -op ing coun tries (no ta bly, Af rica and large parts of the Mid dle East) have not bene fited to the same ex tent as many Asian and Cen tral and East Euro pean coun tries. More over, MNCs have fo cused on In ter na tional Joint Ven tures (IJVs) as the main means of en ter ing these coun tries. This form of en try may not be the best method to trans fer tech nol ogy and to ob tain the best re sults of the in ter ac tion be tween MNCs and host coun tries. This pa per seeks to ex plore this is sue by use of a qual i ta tive study of IJVs in Jor dan. The pa per uses a new in stitutional eco nomic framework that high lights the im por tance of in for mal in sti tu tional sys tems for the de cision on mode of en try. The re sults of the study in di cate that MNCs in Jordan would pre fer to use fully-owned sub sid iar ies, but the char ac ter is tics of the in for mal in sti tu tional sys tem in Jor dan re sults in high trans ac tion costs that can best be re duced by the use of IJVs. Thus al though Jor dan has un der gone sig nif i cant re form to her eco nomic sys tem, the prob lems caused by the na ture of in for mal in sti tu tional sys tems have lim ited the growth of what might have been more ben e fi cial FDI. [Ar ti cle cop ie s available for a fee from The Haworth Doc u ment De liv ery Ser vice

Economic Reform, Social Welfare, and Instability: Jordan, Egypt, Morocco, and Tunisia, 1983–2004

This article fills an important gap in the literature by exploring the trends in social welfare in four MENA countries that have undertaken extensive economic liberalization programs under the auspices of the IMF and the World Bank — namely, Jordan, Egypt, Tunisia, and Morocco. Studying the experiences of these countries provides an opportunity to enhance the understanding of the link between economic reforms, the level of social welfare provision, and political stability.

Education, Political Participation, and Islamist Parties: The Case of Jordan's Islamic Action Front

It has been argued that the charitable activities and religiosity of Islamist political parties may attract less-educated citizens and reverse the standard positive correlation between education and political participation. We surveyed active members of Jordan’s Islamic Action Front (IAF), and found them to be far more educated than other Jordanians. They elected yet more educated leaders, which combined with their low unemployment suggests that an IAF government would value technical competence and avoid a “populist” economic program.

Economic Reform, Social Welfare, Civic Society and Islamists in Morocco

Morocco, like many other Middle Eastern and North African states, has a long history of populist state welfare provision in the form of an implicit Social Contract whereby the state provides for its citizens in return for loyalty to the regime. However, although the country has made huge strides since independence in improving social welfare, most of its social welfare indicators remain below those of comparable lower middle-income countries. This is because state welfare provision, although based on a populist model, has been biased towards urban areas and the better off.

Deradicalizing Violent Extremists: Counter-Radicalization and Deradicalization Programmes and their Impact in Muslim Majority States

Deradicalization and counter-radicalization programmes refer to programmes introduced to cause change in views and behaviour of detailed and non-detained militants to make them permanently abandon violence and to prevent the emergence of a new generation of terrorists in the future. This book analyses such programmes in eight Muslim majority countries: Algeria; Bangladesh;Egypt; Jordan; Malaysia; Morocco; Saudi Arabia and Yemen. It offers the first comprehensive study of conditions conducive to successful counter- and deradicalization programmes at both the national and international level.

Counter Radicalization and De-radicalization in Western Democracies: The Case of Australia

Following the emergence of some serious Violent Extremist activities and individuals during the first decade of the 21st century (see the previous chapter for more detail), the Australian government promoted modest de-radicalization and counter radicalization procedures. The literature has paid little attention to how the Australian government actually responded to the rise of Violent Extremism (VEm), including the rise of ‘home-grown’ terrorism in particular. This is not only because these efforts remained nascent, but also because the Australian government felt uncomfortable publicizing them for fear of undermining them. This chapter fills an important gap in the literature by focusing entirely on Australia’s response to the emergence of VEm in its territory.

From Militarization to Democratization: The Transformation of Turkey’s Counter Terrorism Strategy (CTS)

Turkey is both historically and geopolitically one of the most important countries in the region. Not only was its capital regarded as the birth place of one of the most enduring empires (the Ottoman Empire) in the history of the world, but also its geographic location at the intersection between Europe and Asia confers a special geopolitical significance. Throughout history, Turkey became a major centre for trade and migration from and to the region. Turkey, notwithstanding its past religious authority, is also secular as it became the first Islamic state to officially relinquish the Islamic caliphate in the early 1920s and to embark on a process of Westernization, secularization, industrialization and democratization. Such rapid and large transformations have inevitably been associated with a rise in violent extremism (VEm) in the country. To be sure, Turkey has long struggled with the phenomenon of violent extremism whose roots go back to the 1880 first Kurdish rebellion. V Em, however, evolved and endured in Turkey. Today, VEm represents one of the salient features of the Turkish political system, influencing not only the country’s social fabric but also its international relations. The Turkish prime minister has recently ‘defined terrorism as the biggest obstacle’ before the political, economic and democratic development of Turkey (JTW, 2010).