I. What is Globalization and what are the problems associated with it? (classes up to February 1, plus video on Feb. 5 and Joseph Stiglitz book) - the questions all deal with the various problems, which we may summarize as follows:

a. imperfect markets and the need for "fair" playing fields

b. social and political impacts of free trade

c. growing inequality within societies

d. the structural power of international capital (Tom Friedman's "electronic horde")

e. political implications: international pressures for political and institutional as well as economic reforms in the less developed countries.

II. Impacts of Globalization in the MENA

a. colonial heritages and distrust of outside pressures for reform

b. economic stagnation and debt crises in the 1980s

c. perceptions inside the region of the need for reform (see Arab Human Development Reports, also the chapter in Galal Amin's book about Egyptian economists)

d. political pressures: internal repression in the face of frustrated social mobility (cf Galal Amin), rising Islamist opposition pressures, all intensified by the US presence in Iraq (pro-American regimes trying to cope with anti-American public opinion).

e. Offsetting pressures are the cushions of the various forms of rent and other external revenues (petroleum revenues, foreign aid, workers' remittances)

III. Types of MENA regimes and responses (mainly Henry-Springborg book)

a. types of regimes: legacies of colonial situations

i. bunkers: Algeria, Egypt, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen

ii. bullies: Egypt, Tunisia, Palestine

iii. monarchies: Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates

iv. quasi-democracies: Iran, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey

b. how they got there, after revolutions or military coups in some cases, and the consequences for their respectively business communities.

c. Comparing political capacities: taxation, accountability, and transparency

d. Contract-intensive Money (CIM) as an indicator of the adequacy of institutions to protect property rights and guarantee contracts and the rule of law? (H&S, p. 79)

e. Transparency: free flows of information for potential foreign or even local investors?