“The political economy of transformation in the ERF region” is indeed a broad research theme that involves several aspects; going from the nature of representative political institutions, to that of the labor markets in the region, fiscal transparency, characteristics of economic and social policies of the region, performance of manufacturing public and private firms, or efficiency of democratic reforms.
Our first session was dedicated to discuss the rise and fall of representative political institutions in the region, and the factors that brought about political and economic change in the region on the other.
In his presentation, Sami Atallah (Lebanese Center for Policy Studies) shed the light on the importance of historical geostrategic routes from India to England and how it affected the rise of contemporary political institutions in the Middle East. According to him, a glimpse at the countries on the geostrategic route, and their comparison to the rest of the world (except Europe and North and South America), shows how countries on the route are more authoritarian than other countries which are not geographically on the route. By going back to history, in 1798 when Napoleon invaded Egypt, Sami argues that British interference in the political institutions, which derived from their need to secure trade, was detrimental to the evolution of political representative institutions in the region. As a matter of example, the British intervention to remove the Consultative Council in Egypt in 1866 or to prevent the creation of a Consultative Council in Dubai in 1930 affected the rise and evolution of political representative institutions in both countries. Introducing democratic institutions in such countries, which are on the geostrategic route, was much harder in the aftermath of their independence.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxiT-E2vl50&w=435&h=315]
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