Copyright (c) 2009 All rights reserved. http://works.bepress.com/lama_abu_odeh Recent documents in Lama Abu Odeh en-us Tue, 24 Mar 2009 05:14:47 PDT 3600 http://works.bepress.com/lama_abu_odeh/1 http://works.bepress.com/lama_abu_odeh/1 Mon, 23 Mar 2009 04:25:37 PDT The article describes the drama of economic transition in Egypt from the public to the private sector combining in its methodology the study of the economy with that of the social forces and political systems.Transitioning from an economy in which the public sector played a primary role to one that favors domestic private sector is no easy matter. This is especially so when the public sector constitutes the site not just of economic growth and distribution, but also, the place where state elites are incubated. The Egyptian story of transition is complicated by the fact that Egypt receives 'rent' from three strategic sources: the Suez Canal, oil and natural gas, and geo-political location (US aid). Adding complexity is what I call "the Islamic Sector" that works as a kind of alternative parallel state in the shadow. In the transition from the public sector to market, law plays an important role. Not only is law used by elites to "implement" an economic strategy, and interpreted by judges in "the spirit of the times", it is also deployed among the contending social forces of the transition.The article starts with a historical review, beginning with the regime of Nasser and ending with that of Mubarak. After inserting the Islamic sector to the drama, the paper continues with describing how law is used for each orientation and its actors. It finishes by describing four strategies for the state elite to remain in power. It is a description with an underlying normative agenda. It tries to describe the situation in a way that (hopefully) leads the reader to ask the following two questions: first, what is the response, indeed alternative to the Washington Consensus as a response to the failure of ISI; and second, which social force in the context of Egypt most likely to produce this alternative? Lama Abu Odeh Comparative Law Constitutional Law Economics Human Rights Law International Law Labor Law Politics Trade Regulation