Socioeconomic reforms in times of political transformation: Conflicts over the political economy in Egypt and Tunisia post-2011

Abstract

While ample research on the political economy of the MENA has pointed to the underlying causes of the Arab uprisings, little analysis has been done on the political economies after this massive rupture. To fill this gap, the contributions in this themed section use in-depth case studies from Egypt and Tunisia post-2011, and look at how socioeconomic challenges were addressed once political institutions – in very different regime contexts – were back in place.

Given the fairly similar political economies, the case studies offer intriguing insights into obstacles that both a democracy and an autocracy face in tackling socioeconomic problems in issue areas such as fiscal policy, labour laws and decentralisation reforms. Studying these conflicts helps us to identify the relevant actors and their relative power at a given moment. The analysis also provides an opportunity to identify how formal and informal institutions are used and if the new institutional setting allows for effective conflict management. The results uncover a mixed depiction of capacities to implement reforms, which cannot be explained by the regime variable or absolute state capacity alone. Instead, explanatory power is found in a dynamic, relational, agency-oriented approach to analyzing state and social actors in issue-specific socioeconomic reform conflicts.

Keywords:

• Arab spring
• revolutions
• political economy
• authoritarianism
• social justice
• contentious politics

Acknowledgements

Research for this paper has been generously supported by a grant of the Volkswagen-Stiftung in the context of the research project “Struggles over Socioeconomic Reforms: Political Conflict and Social Contention in Egypt and Tunisia post 2011 in Interregional Comparison” (Grant Number 93325), a cooperation of the Peace Research Institute Frankfurt, the Arab Forum for Alternatives and the University of Sfax. I like to thank all colleagues who contributed to this themed section, the reviewers and editors of Mediterranean Politics.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. The most important difference was certainly the army’s role in the Egyptian economy and the political realm after 2011 (Roll, 2016). However, President al-Sisi backed by the military is not omnipotent, as seen in conflicts, trade-offs and failed reform attempts, making this comparison all the more relevant.

2. For a comprehensive overview of IMF activities in the MENA, see Radwan (2020).

Additional information

Funding

The work was supported by the Volkswagen Foundation [93325].