Globalisation and the Restructuring of State Power in the Arab World

Abstract

The dynamics of change in the Arab world today are part of a much larger global process–the neo-liberal phase of globalisation–that started in the 1980s and engendered a process of state power restructuring, both for peripheral “weak” states and core industrialised countries. Beyond national differences, the restructuring of the Arab states has implied the consolidation of neo-authoritarian political regimes characterised by fragmentation of the power structure and by an increase in informal modes of government (neo-patrimonialism, corruption), accompanied by the parallel political and economic marginalisation of large sectors of society. These less centralised and more elitist regimes are likely to be more dependent and vulnerable than their predecessors to external pressures and foreign influence.

Notes

¹ See, for example, Henry, “Clash of Globalisations in the Middle East”.

² See, for example, Hakimian and Moshaver, The State and Global Change.

³ Catusse and Vairel, “Métamorphose et continuité du régime marocain”; Kienle, A Grand Delusion.

⁴ Hibou, Privatising the State.

⁵ Clark, Globalization and International Relations Theory, 52.

⁶ See, for instance, Albrecht and Schlumberger, “Regime Change Without Democratisation”; Pripstein Posusney and Penner Angris, Authoritarianism in the Middle East; or Bicchi, Guazzone and Pioppi, Democrazia e il mondo arabo and the literature cited there.

⁷ Perthes, Arab Elites. Negotiating the Politics of Change.

⁸ Dahl, Poliarchy, Participation and Opposition.

⁹ Langohr, “Too Much Civil Society, Too Little Politics”.

¹⁰ Bush, Counter-Revolution in Egypt's Countryside; King, Liberalization Against Democracy.

¹¹ Arafat and Ben Nefissa, Vote et démocratie dans l’Egypte contemporaine; Catusse and Vairel, “Métamorphose et continuité du régime marocain”.

¹² Singerman, Avenues of Participation.

¹³ Heydemann, Networks of Privilege in the Middle East.

¹⁴ Ibid.

¹⁵ See, for example, Karshenas and Moghadam, Social Policy in the Middle East.

¹⁶ ILO, Natlex database, http://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex_browse.home

¹⁷ Clark, Globalization and International Relations Theory, 107–26; Barkawi and Laffey, “The Imperial Peace”; Kaldor, New and Old Wars.

¹⁸ Conflicts in Afghanistan-Pakistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, and West Africa are other obvious examples of new wars.

¹⁹ Bilgin and Morton, “Rethinking State Failure”; Leander, “Globalisation and Legitimate Use of Force”.

²⁰ Kaldor, New and Old Wars, 72–94.

²¹ Ibid., 1–14.

²² Fearon and Laitin, “Neotrusteeship and the problem of weak states”, 7.

²³ Leenders, “Au-delà du ‘Pays des deux fleuves’”.

²⁴ Owen, State, Power and Politics in the Modern Middle East.

²⁵ Bayart, Le gouvernement du monde, 74–5; Duffield, Global Governance and New Wars, 136–40.

²⁶ Leenders, “Regional conflict formations”.

²⁷ Bellin, “Coercive Institutions and Coercive Leaders”, 21–41.

²⁸ The results of the ongoing IAI-SIIA research on “The Dynamics of Change in the Arab World: Globalisation and the Re-Structuring of State Power” will be presented in a conference and published in book form in 2008.