Arab Corporatism

This project studied the corporatist political regimes of Egypt and Tunisia, finding that the emergence of corporatism has its roots in free market reforms. Instead of ushering in free markets, these reforms instituted closed unfree markets characterized by restrictions on entry and competition, close links between the ruling regime and large favored firms and extensive government support for these firms under the rhetoric of development. This corporatist system emerged because of, and in turn strengthened, an omnipresent police state and an unaccountable rentier government.