Gov 365N/MES 323K

Questions for Class 13: Feb 25, 2010

1) Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of business oligopolies controlling private sectors of some of the MENA economies - how do they compare with state planning agencies?

2) What is crony capitalism and which types of political economy in the MENA are especially prone to it?

3) Is the "freedom deficit" the principal culprit preventing Arab countries (and Iran, too, for the matter) from living up to their full potential for assimilated, applying, and developing new technologies for their economic development? In their second Arab Human Development Report (2003) the authors suggest that there is a relationship between the freedom deficit and the knowledge deficit discussed in their earlier report. How convinced are you that, in their words, "freedom of thought and expression are among the fundamental principles for shaping free, innovative societies, businesses and individuals?" What other problems do the Arab countries face in efforts to develop "knowledge societies?"

4) Can we relate our typology of bunker, bully, monarchical, and quasi-democratic regimes to the media statistics presented on your syllabus?

5) In your reading for the coming week Naomi Sakr comments: "Benedict Anderson has argued that print-capitalism created the possibility of an "imagined community," in which individuals felt themselves to be intimately connected to millions of people they had never met. Arabic-language television transcending national borders could have a comparable effect." What are some of the political implications of satellite TV in the countries we are studying?