Mirages of Reform (eBook)

The Politics of Elite Protectionism in the Arab World

Steve L. Monroe (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2025
252 Seiten
Cornell University Press (Verlag)
978-1-5017-8062-2 (ISBN)

Infos

In Mirages of Reform, Steve L. Monroe argues that geopolitics and social connections between state and capital underpin the Arab world's uneven trade policies. Despite decades of international pressure, neoliberal trade policy reform in the Arab world has been varied, selective, and often ineffective. Neoliberal trade policies have not deepened international trade in many of the region's markets. This book explains why.

When the region's regimes have strong support from global powers and strong social connections to the industrial elite, they engage in extensive but deceptive trade policy reform. Behind an edifice of neoliberal trade policies, neopatrimonial forms of protectionism like tax evasion and noncompetitive procurement shield the socially connected from international competition and obstruct actual trade liberalization. Industrialists are less trustful of regime promises of neopatrimonial protectionism after reform when they have weak social connections to their regime and their regime has low support from global powers. They are more likely to defend existing protectionist policies under these conditions, resulting in less trade policy reform.

Drawing on interviews, firm- and industry-level data, and evidence from Jordan to Morocco, Mirages of Reform reveals how international and domestic factors interact to shape the Arab world's rugged trade policy terrain. Insightful and well researched, this book imparts important lessons and warnings about the repercussions of economic reform in the region.

Autor

Steve L. Monroe is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the National University of Singapore. He is a scholar of development, with a primary focus on the Arab world. Monroe's scholarship examines two of the region's most pressing developmental challenges: limited economic integration, and gender inequality.

Inhalt

Introduction
1. Connections,Geopolitics,and Varieties of Protectionism
2. Jordan before Reform
3. Neoliberal Reform under King Hussein and King Abdullah II (1990–2010)
4. Social Connections, Geopolitics, and Tariff Liberalization
5. How Social Connections Shape Trade Policy Reform
6. Neoliberal Reform in Five Arab States
Conclusion

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 15.5.2025
• Zusatzinfo: 1 chart, 10 graphs
• Verlagsort: Ithaca
• Sprache: englisch
• Maße: 150 x 150 mm
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Politik / Verwaltung ► Staat / Verwaltung
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Makroökonomie
• Themenwelt: Wirtschaft ► Volkswirtschaftslehre ► Wirtschaftspolitik
• Schlagworte: Crony Capitalism, Neoliberal Reform, Neopatrimonial, Trade Liberalization, Trade policies in the Middle East, Jordan, Business Politics in the Middle East, Middle East Political Economy The Politics of Economic Reform
• ISBN-10: 1-5017-8062-X / 150178062X
• ISBN-13: 978-1-5017-8062-2 / 9781501780622