This course will survey the recent efforts of the countries of the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to adapt to the global economy. We will compare their respective strategies of economic and political development and discuss the possible interrelationships between economic and political change. Everyone will be expected to develop solid knowledge of the economies and policies of at least three countries, including one of the major economies of the Arab region (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Tunisia).

In the first three weeks of class you will be expected to select up to three countries and some aspect(s) of political reform or better "governance," such as public sector reform and/or privatization, improving financial transparency, banking reform, fighting corruption, supporting human rights and/or freedom of the press, strengthening parliament, encouraging participation through elections, decentralizing government, or improving the status of women and strengthening civil society. You may focus one or several dimensions of governance. To gain perspective about the various dimensions of governance as they apply to the Arab world, please examine the website of the United Nations Development Program at www.pogar.org. You may also look at the country files of the Carnegie Endowment's Arab Political Systems database, where you can also access their related publications on Arab reform (Bulletin archives) and rule of law in the Middle East. You may also look ahead in your reading assignments to find (available in Blackboard) my Globalization and the politics of development, with Robert Springborg, 2nd edition in press, for chapter 4, focusing on Algeria and Syria, chapter 5, for Egypt and Tunisia, chapter 6 for the monarchies, and chapter 7 for the precarious democracies and Iran.

First you will need to look for source materials and write up an "annotated" bibliography. The bibliography should contain a brief critical summary and evaluation of each

of the resources you have dug up. By "annotated" is meant that you summarize each source, focusing on those elements that are of relevance to your research. Also, you should evaluate the sources and find out why they are useful and how they help you understand your topic and countries.

 

Secondly, you will need to develop a short (200 word) outline suggesting in some specific area what your set of countries needs to do to face up to the challenges of globalization. You will then be ready to discuss possible policy alternatives with your classmates. Presumably your final 2000-word paper will develop out of your initial statement, though you may feel free to change topics as you acquire new interests and knowledge in the course of the semester.

 

You will also be expected to participate actively in class. This means reading your syllabus and Blackboard email traffic so as to be prepared in class to answer questions arising from the readings or emails. It also means some quality discussion on Blackboard with those of you working on similar topics. You are also encouraged to come to our office hours and discuss your research with your instructor.

 

Students with disabilities can get help from UT's Division of Diversity and Community Engagement, Services for Students with Disabilities , 471-6259

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Feb 9: Deadline for selecting a research topic and country focus (write 200 to 500 words, consulting with the instructor)

Feb 23: Annotated bibliography - at least 10 resources, including books, articles, web sites focused on your topic - hard copy in class and posting on Blackboard in your country discussion board.

March 4: midterm exam

March 30: 1000-word development of your project to be posted on Blackboard and possibly discussed in class.

April 8: Rough draft of final paper due - hard copy in class and posting on Blackboard.

April 22: Final term paper due - hard copy in class and posting on Blackboard in your team portfolio.

April 27 to May 4: In-class discussions of papers

May 6: Final quiz, instead of a final exam.

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• Midterm 20%
• Annotated bibliography 5%
• Outline 5%
• Class Participation 20% (includes class attendence, computer "chat" Blackboard participation with your team, pop quizzes, class discussions, presentations and critiques of papers in class)
• Final paper 35%
• Final quiz 15%

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*Galal Amin, Whatever Happened to the Egyptians? (AUC Press, 2000) pb.

*Anoushiravan Ehteshami, Globalization and Geopolitics in the Middle East, Routledge 2009 pb.

*Joseph Stiglitz, Making Globalization Work (Norton, 2006) pb.

Recommended:

John Gray, False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism NY: New Press, 1998

Alan Richards and John Waterbury, A Political Economy of the Middle East, Third Edition (Westview pb, 2007)

Clement Henry and Robert Springborg, Globalization and the politics of development in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2001) - used copies available for under $10 at amazon.com - an earlier manuscript version is also available online.

To be made vailable on Blackboard:

Clement Henry and Robert Springborg, Globalization and the politics of development in the Middle East (Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed in press).

 

Available online:

 

World Bank, From Privilege to Competition: Unlocking Private-led Growth in the Middle East and North Africa, MENA Development Report 2009

Arab Human Development Report 2004 - online (download 2.2 megs) - other years also available at Arab Human Development reports home page

Brookings and Dubai School of Government, Middle East Youth Initiative (2008) - and other pubications online.

Clement M. Henry, The United States and Iraq: American Bull in a Middle East China Shop, in Betty Glad and Chris J. Dolan, eds., Striking First (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 65-73.

Clement M. Henry, "The Clash of Globalizations," in Louise Fawcett, International Relations of the Middle East, Oxford University Press, 2005; and updated in second edition (2009)

United Nations Development Program, Human Development Reports online: download 2010 or earlier HDR

UNDP and League of Arab States, Development Challenges for the Arab States, vol I Human Development, vol 2 Food Security and Agriculture, December 2009 press release

World Bank, World Development Report 2005, A Better Investment Climate for Everyone, online (download 3 megs)

Link to all WDRs up to present

World Bank, Better Governance for Development in the MENA (Wash DC, 2003)

World Bank, Unlocking the Employment Potential in the MENA: Toward a New Social Contract (download 20 megs), (Wash DC, 2004)

World Bank, Middle East and North Africa: 2005 Economic Developments and Prospects: Oil Booms and Revenue Management (Wash DC, 2005) - download 1.5 megs.

World Bank, Middle East and North Africa: 2007 Economic Developments and Prospects: Job Creation in a Period of High Growth (Wash DC, 2007) - download 2.5 megs but also available by chapter.

World Bank, 2009 MENA Economic Developments and Prospects : Navigating through the Global Recession (Wash DC, 2009)

World Bank, From Privilege to Competition (MENA flagship report on development of private sector, 2009)

World Bank, Global Economic Prospects 2010: Crisis, Finance, Growth (Jan 2010)

World Bank, Doing Business 2008 : Improved Rankings for the MENA Region - 37-page download - Doing Business 2010 (update)

World Economic Forum, Arab Competitiveness Report 2007

World Economic Forum, The Global Gender Gap Report 2007

 

New: World Bank, MENA Governance News & Notes (periodical)

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1st week (Jan. 19-21): INTRODUCTION

The challenges of economic globalization to the domestic economies of the MENA. Is globalization a "golden straitjacket" (Thomas Friedman, 13.6.97 NYT op ed) expanding economies and shrinking political space? Despite the shrinking, there is still politics! Indeed, world politics, regional politics, local country politics, and that is what this course is about in this especially volatile region of the world. Our approach: globalization in the post Cold War context of US hegemony is the independent variable, and we wish to document and explain the region's varied responses. There are intervening regional variables, such as the Arab-Israeli peace process, new alliances within the region, and special relationships with the United States, the European Community and other outside powers, that also impact upon the individual countries of the region. Another set of intervening variables are the institutions and social forces within each country which affect economic policy making. The MENA states have adapted a variety of responses to globalization--renewed statism and islamism as well as the Washington Consensus. Their policies, in turn, are contributing to new forms of capitalism and generating new social forces and backlashes. What are the prospects for political change (and in which general direction, toward greater democracy or authoritarianism?).

Reading: Here is a map of the region to help you fill out our map exercise that you are expected to download (due Tuesday, Jan 26)

Ehteshami, pp. 20-32

Thomas Friedman, excerpts from Lexus and the Olive Tree (1999). More: look up the "golden straitjacket" and "electronic herd"

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Globalization and its Discontents (New York: Norton 2003), ix-xvi; "Outspoken Chief Economist Leaving World Bank," NY Times, Nov. 25, 1999

Joseph Stiglitz, Making Globalization Work, pp ix-xviii, 3-24

Optional :

Clement M. Henry, "The clash of globalizations in the Middle East," in Louise Fawcett, International Relations of the Middle East, 2nd edition, Oxford University Press, 2009

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Globalization is rooted in expanding international trade since World War II, but what are the consequences of trade liberalization, diminished tariff and other barriers, upon the domestic politics of the various countries that open their doors? Look carefully at Rogowski's analysis: if more trade benefits capital in capital-rich countries and labor only in countries where labor is abundant, what happens to the USA, what political cleavages emerge? And where abundant labor is denied advantages, is the outcome "Asian fascism"? What has in fact happened to pay scales in the manufacturing sector with increasing world trade?

Joseph Stiglitz, Making Globalization Work, pp 25-101.

Ehteshami, pp. 1-19

James Galbraith, google search "Inequality" to find his University of Texas Inequality Project (UTIP) to make your own files - here is the Maghreb plus all the data.

 

Map Exercise due Tuesday, Jan. 26. Just download and print out the blank map, thern write in the names of as many MENA states as you can find on it.

Practicum: Commanding Heights PBS video in class Thursday, Jan. 28. Expect in-class videos to be followed by brief quizzes designed for you to relate them to previous readings and discussions in this course. Here is the transcript of the entire part II of the program.

Optional :

Ronald Rogowski, "Political Cleavages and Changing Exposure to Trade," APSR 81:4 (Dec 1987), pp. 1121-1137 JSTORS on line

Joseph E. Stiglitz, Democratic Development as the Fruits of Labor, Keynote Address, Industrial Relations Research Association, Boston, January 2000.

John Gray, False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism NY: New Press, 1998, pp. 1-77, 194-235.

Let us establish present base-lines of economic performance to document the proposition that the Middle East and North Africa has, by its own and others' standards, been an economic "underperformer" for at least a generation. Both diachronic and synchronic data related to economic performance will be provided for MENA and comparable countries. Special attention will be given to "pre-revolutionary" patterns of development in selected MENA countries, as well as their respective transitions to patrimonial statist models of development. Data will be presented on both human and physical resource development, as well as on aggregate output and equality. We will examine the data sets, comparing MENA countries with other regions. Look at various indicators of development, how MENA lags despite oil boom years.

Readings:

Henry and Springborg, Globalization and the politics of development in the Middle East, chapter 1 on Blackboard.

Ehteshami, pp. 33-46, 149-164

Galal Amin, Whatever Happened to the Egyptians? (to be completed next week)

 

Practicum: World Bank, World Development Indicators, (see online via PCL) size of economies and per capita GDP. Also look at Human Development indicators of the UN Development Program (UNDP) and get tables.

IMF, The Middle East and North Africa (Finance and Development, Sept 2003) - a quick 1 pg IMF overview to see in color on your computer!

United Nations Development Programme, Programme on Governance in the Arab Region (POGAR): further thematic coverage of all Arab countries.

 

Extra: IMF, World Economic Outlook: Globalization and Inequality October 2007 - this seems right up our alley, with Jan 30, 2008 update link! Also, while looking in on the IMF, see their Dec 2007 research paper, How Has The Globalization of Labor Affected the Labor Share in Advanced Countries? The quick answer: other factors like technology were more important in reducing the share of labor in the advanced countries' income.

 

Optional:

APSA address given by Kenneth Waltz in 1999.

Clement M. Henry, The United States and Iraq: American Bull in a Middle East China Shop, in Betty Glad and Chris J. Dolan, eds., Striking First (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), pp. 65-73.

World Economic Forum, Arab Competitiveness Report 2007 (to look at, at least read Hanouz and Yousef, Assessing Competitiveness in the Arab World, maybe use other chapters in your research) - also WEF Global Competitiveness Report 2009-10 with country profiles that may help you select your paper topic.

 

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Feb 9: Deadline for selecting a research topic and country focus: post 200-500 words on Blackboard and email it to your professor (chenry@mail.utexas.edu)

Readings:

Galal Amin, finish

Henry and Springborg, Globalization and the politics of development in the Middle East, begin chap 2

Practicum: Freedom House, Country Reports, and UNDP, POGAR, focus on countries that interest you so as to choose at least one by Feb. 9. 

Optional:

World Bank, From Privilege to Competition: Unlocking Private-led Growth in the Middle East and North Africa, MENA Development Report 2009 - should be a useful starting point for your research.

Why has the MENA lagged? We look first at global factors. Oil rents and lavish aid (which can be carried further back to colonial times - the Europeans paid off their dependents to keep them quiet) fueled by the Cold War. Now the international rules have been changing since 1980s, leaving MENA adrift or in the throes of adjusment. MENA still gobbles up much of the world arms trade. Oil rents still bolster many of the economies of the region and may explain why needed reforms can be postponed.

Regional dynamics have been peculiarly unconducive to economic growth, political stability, and FDI. Arab Cold Wars and Arab-Israeli conflict, etc. Heavy military expenditures, within a region more interdependent than most because of transnational Arabism and Islam. The security states have had good excuses to stay armed and statist. Rivalries prevent regional trade, much less integration and functional specialization - everyone had to build a steel industry. Rentier states tend to give priority to allocation (and patronage) over production.

Can we dismiss cultural arguments? Yes and no. Puritanism and Islamism are both quite compatible with modernization, as Ernest Gellner argues. But cultural dualism and economic inequality can be especially combustible mixtures in the big cities (comparisons with Latin America on rates of recent urbanization, measures of economic inequality, and within MENA, comparing countries where islamism seems relatively containable - Jordan, Yemen and Morocco - with others?). MENA's social strains (becoming comparable to Latin America's) and an emergent and unruly islamist civil society generate rising costs of internal as well as external security. Compare the repressed popular sectors documented in Guillermo O'Donnell's work on Latin America in the 1960s and 1970s with the repressed islamist sectors of the MENA. Burdened by abnormally high security costs and police mentalities, many of the MENA's states may be peculiarly ill adapted to cope with economic issues raised by globalization.

The world has cared too much and too little about the MENA - too much in that "the Eastern Question" amplified international rivalries (Carl Brown 1984 analysis, and now China's new oil drive and the US occupation of Iraq); too little in that FDI shriveled after brief oil boom flirtations of mid-1970s, apart from the oil sector, which even so was partially disconnected from the major western companies in the 1970s.

Readings:

Henry and Springborg, Globalization and the politics of development in the Middle East, ch. 2

Ehteshami, pp. 47-59, 130-148, then optional pp. 60-108

Optional:

Michael L. Ross, "Does Oil Hinder Democracy?" World Politics 53: 3 (April 2001), 325-361; "Oil and Democracy Revisited, online paper 2008

Michael L. Ross, "The Political Economy of the Resource Curse," World Politics 51:2 (Jan 1999), 297-322

Michael Herb, "No Representation Without Taxation?" Comparative Politics, April 2005, pp. 297-316.

Jonathan Nitzan and Shimshon Bichler, The Global Political Economy of Israel, Table of contents, chapter 5 ("The weapondollar-petrodollar coalition"), and those of you interested in Israel might read on to get an understanding of the Israeli political economy.

Practicum: Examine recent trends in:

• Oil: look at British Petroleum statistics on oil production, reserves, prices.
• Rentier state: Look at WDI 2001 table giving the structure of exports - note the high proportions of fuel exports=oil and gas.
• Arms data: From Mena-politics (http://www.la.utexas.edu/chenry/mena/) examine Center for Defense Information data base or go to Sipri (Sweden) at http://www.sipri.org/ and register to look for military expenditures by country or by region. Cf. WDI 2001data that you can update through the library online. You might also look at the Federation of American Scientists http://www.fas.org/ and their databanks.

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Statist legacies (weak but "fierce" states) which, to be fair, were not only reflections of state weakness but also responses to older forms of imperialism. Statism also fit the Bretton Woods era (1944-1971) of "embedded" (or social justice oriented) liberalism. Statist political forces surviving in the region: public sector officials, patronage networks, labor forces preventing dismantling of the old order. Bureaucratic overgrowth and issues of employment vs, privatization. Comparisons: peculiar convergence between the radical nationalizers and the oil producers.

Focus on the crony capitalist and other rent-seekers: the enclave business elites offer up resources to solidify the patronage networks. Why are the results different from those of equally corrupt polities in East Asia? How autonomous in these patrimonial regimes can economic policy makers be - look at the roles of technocrats, economic teams of reform-oriented ministers, zero in on Egypt and the final Gandzoury triumph in 1996 (for a little while) after stagnation and paralysis under previous ministries (cf Suharto's sound macro-economic management after earlier mistakes). Maybe we can also find little change teams in Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan but they are precarious because technocrats just don't have relative autonomy in these patrimonial systems. Maybe more so in Egypt or Tunisia than in Algeria (where even presidents can be assassinated): recall that in Saddam's Iraq the poor petroleum minister had to flee in fall 1990 after being scapegoated for rising prices at the pump during the Kuwait crisis.

Feb. 23: Annotated bibliography due, post it on Blackboard and email it to your professor (chenry@mail.utexas.edu)

Readings:

Ehteshami , pp. 109--129

Henry and Springborg, Globalization, ch. 3

 

Practicum: Examine:

• Freedom House data and country reports;
• the World Bank subjective indicators of political development for MENA.
• The Index of Economic Freedom of the Heritage Foundation is very user friendly - you may make your own charts - and, more relevant than the numbers are detailed descriptions for each country along ten indicators including property rights and regulation - worth reading, maybe an occasional selective quote as it reflects US business perceptions hence foreign investment climate maybe.
• The Corruption Perception Index, from Transparency International, lists lots of MENA countries among the 180 countries covered, based on various polls and surveys carried out among "business people and country analysts, including surveys of residents, both local and expatriate," very much like the Kaufmann World Bank data.
• Contract-Intensive Money (Checking and Savings Accounts etc. as a percentage of the money supply M2, generated from IMF Financial Statistics) may be a more "objective" indicator of the rule of law.. For a critical analysis of governance indicators, see Todd Landman, Map-Making and Analysis of the Main International Initiatives on Developing Indicators of Democracy and Good Governance, University of Essex, Human Rights Centre, 2003. Also (10 meg pdf file download) Christopher Clague et al, Contract-Intensive Money: Contract Enforcement, Property Rights, and Economic Performance (rev ed 1997).

Optional:

United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Arab Human Development Report 2004, pp. 1-22, 47-64 (pp. 7-28, 52-69 in your pdf file; NB p15=22ff: the "black-hole state"

IMF Working paper by Crandall and Bodin, Revenue Administration Reform in the Middle Eastern Countries, 1994-2004, pp. 1-10, 26-29

Steven Heydemann, "Upgrading Authoritarianism in the Arab World," Brookings, October 2007

Arab Reform Initiative library of recent articles on reforms in the region.

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Is the MENA a political backwater (helping to explain the poor quality of economic policy-making?)? To carry the golden straightjacket analogy a step further, is the MENA already especially undemocratic for its levels of economic development and social change? Data will show that much of the region is just reaching critical per capita GDP levels but of course these mean little unless we can get some theoretical explanations behind the supposed correlations between per capita income and type of political regime. How will globalization affect the region's archaic patrimonial regimes? Maybe, though economic development did not necessarily undermine dictatorship in the past (cf Przeworski), globalization seen in its political and imperial as well as economic ramifications puts ever increasing pressure on incumbent patrimonial regimes. Countries can go democratic for geopolitical as well as for modernization reasons. Does the Information Revolution present a new set of threats as well as opportunities?

March 4: Midterm exam

Readings:

Naomi Sakr, "Satellite Television and Development in the Middle East," Middle East Report, Spring 1999

Marwan Kraidy, "Emerging Consensus to Muzzle Media," Arab Reform Bulletin (Carnegie), March 2008.

 

Practicum: Discussions (March 18, 2008) of Arab League Broadcasting Charter adopted by the Arab League in 2008, courtesy of Arab Media and Society (from the American University in Cairo). Reporters Without Borders also report on the situation in the countries of the MENA you are researching and present an annual Press Freedom Index. We also have Global Internet Statistics by region and by language.

 

Optional further reading: World Bank, Developing Countries and the Global Financial System, World Development Report 2000, chap 3. (or backup)

Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Arab Reform Bulletin (Dec 2004) Statistics on Arab Media

World Bank, Better Governance for Development in the Middle East and North Africa (2003), overview.

Al-Hayat, Feb. 13, 2004, draft of US proposal for Middle East reforms to present to G8 June meeting

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The Commanding Heights, Part III - the new rules of the game, [transcript] with Professor Catherine Boone

• - March 23 : Commanding Heights concluded with Professor Catherine Boone and inclass quiz about globalization.
• - March 25: Rethinking Internet freedom and repression in Egypt with Rachel Sternfeld

Readings:

Jillian York, "ONI Releases 2009 Middle East & North Africa Research," Aug 19, 2009, OpenNet Initiative Website

N. Kristof, Google Takes a Stand, op ed. NYTimes, Jan 14, 2010

Henry and Springborg, Globalization, ch. 4 (for next week)

 

Practicum: Examine the OpenNet Initative (ONI) Releases, the Birkman Institute (Harvard) analyses of Arab and Iranian blogospheres, also Henry on Tunisia's Rogue Ben Ali Regime;

various reform initiatives in or about the Arab world in pogar.org and also the Arab Reform Initiative. On Algeria's political economy see Daho Djerbal, "Integrationof the Islamist Movement," ARI Feb. 2010

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The veiled bunkers - with heavy states and weak businesses and a phenomenon of "deliberalization" shared by all three despite some efforts to privatize to develop export sectors. Can Egypt and Tunisia dare further to liberalize their financial sectors, a prime mechanism for patronage and support for ailing public sector enterprises? And what about Palestine's nascent state monopolies?

March 30: Early draft of your project (1000 words) due: post it on Blackboard and email it to your professor (chenry@mail.utexas.edu)

Readings:

Henry and Springborg, Globalization, ch. 5

Alexandria Statement : “Arab Reform Issues: Vision and Implementation,” 12-14 March 2004, Bibliotheca Alexandrina

 

Practicum: Profiles of Egypt and Tunisia; also see Kamal Labidi, "Tunisia Independent but not Free," Le Monde diplomatique (March 2006). See also, after you read the "Alexandria Statement," RIGHTS-MIDEAST: Govts Ever More Draconian, Group Says, By William Fisher, IPS March 27, 2008.

Optional: Iliya Harik, Economic Policy of Reform in Egypt (UP of Florida, 1997)

Timothy Mitchell, "Dreamland," subsequently chap 9 of Rule of Experts (U of Calif Press, 2002)

Yahya M. Sadowski, Political Vegetables? Businessman and Bureaucrat in the Development of Egyptian Agriculture (Brookings, 1991)

Clement Henry, The Mediterranean Debt Crescent (UP of Florida, 1996), chapters 6, 7.

Boyan Belev, Forcing Freedom: Political Control of Privatization and Economic Opening in Egypt and Tunisia (Columbia PhD 2000) -13.4 megs

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May the "German" (oligopolistic form of) capitalism support political pluralism in the context of monarchy. For how long? Common denominators of family regimes, big statist sectors, generous welfare programs, and sustantial oil or strategic rents. Compare and contrast their manpower, financial strength, oil revenues, stock markets, ability to attract foreign capital (or bring back their own). New middle classes or bourgeoisies in search of democracy?

How will monarchy cope with rising bourgeoisies?

April 8: Rough draft of final policy paper due: post it on Blackboard and email it to your professor (chenry@mail.utexas.edu)

Readings:

Henry and Springborg, Globalization, ch. 6

Neil MacFarquhar, “Heavy Hand of Secret Police Impeding Reform in Arab World," New York Times, Nov. 14, 2005

Practicum:

• World Bank profiles of Morocco, Jordan, and Saudi Arabia
• Does Morocco have greater income inequalities than Tunisia?
• Toward "klnowledge economies"?? Examine World Bank knowledge assessments for cross-country comparisons of "Knowledge for development"

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What do Israel, Turkey, Lebanon, and Iran have in common? Lots of expatriates and remittances but then so also do Algeria, Morocco, and Egypt. Less of a statist legacy than recalcitrant Algeria and Egypt? But Iran, Israel and Turkey carry heavy statist legacies. Turkey and Israel had to crash (Turkey 1978-80, Israel 1982-83) before beginning to adjust - whereas Iran has reversed the reformers. Lebanon, despite its traditions of free enterprise, has failed to privatize its few state enterprises.

Readings:

Henry and Springborg, Globalization, chapter 7.

Practicum: From the tables (2.1, 2.3, 2.4, 3.2, 3.4, 7.1) and figures (2.4, 3.2-3.5, 3.7, 3.8, 4.1, 4.2) in Henry and Springborg, how does Iran compare with the other democracies? with the other bullies?

Optional: Kiren Chaudhry, The Price of Wealth (Cornell UP 1997)

Daryl Champion, "Saudi Arabia: Elements of Instability within Stability" (1999)

Eva Bellin, "Contingent Democrats: Industrialists, Labor and Democratization in Late-Developing Countries," World Politics, 52 (January 2000), 175-205

.

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Does Islam act as a shield, mitigating dilemmas between international openness and social welfare? Algeria's reformers tried and failed in 1989-91 to maintain a tacit alliance with the FIS. But Iran already seems well on the way to combining the Washington Consensus with Islamist pluralism. Bonyads (foundations) as sources of civil society? Islamic business sectors will be examined in comparative perspective, including those of other conventional MENA economies, such as Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and the Gulf states. Islamic banking will be analyzed.

April 22: Final paper due: post it on Blackboard and email it to your professor (chenry@mail.utexas.edu)

Readings:

Henry and Springborg, Globalization, ch. 8

Ehteshami, pp. 165-196

Clement Henry and Rodney Wilson, eds., The Politics of Islamic Finance (Edinburgh University Press, 2004), draft Introduction and Conclusion

 

Practicum: Start reading each other's papers for discussions beginning April 27

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Student presentations and discussion: Agenda TBA.

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More economic accountability can just as well help to rationalize authoritarian practices. Or will the United States take its Middle East Partnership Initiative to build democratic pluralism more seriously, developing those vital capitalist communications, and not be afraid of the spillover into civic domains? Here is the most recent budget for foreign aid in the region. What are the prospects of help from outside - multilateral initiatives pushed by the EU and/or the US - for the Arab world?

May 6: In-class quiz and conclusion.

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