Politics from Above, Politics from Below: The Middle East in the Age of Economic Reform

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Even today, economic liberalization is widely supposed to replace the tyranny of the state with the freedom of the individual, and, therefore, the uniformity of politics from above with the liveliness and color of politics from below. This book analyzes developments in the Middle East, arriving at far less reassuring conclusions: that economic liberalization has failed to entail the continuous growth and widespread welfare gains expected by its proponents. By emphasizing privatization and crony capitalism rather than markets, it has also failed to decentralize and democratize the allocation of resources, be they material or symbolic, to enable individuals to participate meaningfully in the production of social norms.