Egyptian government policy
Infitah (
dramatic flight to Jerusalem in 1977. Infitah ended the domination of Egypt's
economy by the
public sector and encouraged both domestic and foreign investment in the
private sector. The Egyptian Army's crossing across the Suez canal in the October 1973
Yom Kippur War, which, despite Egypt's eventual defeat, was seen by many as a political victory for its initial successes
[1] and gave Sadat the prestige to initiate a major reversal of
Gamal Abdel Nasser's policies.
Overview
Under President Nasser, proponents of
command economy with limited private investment, dominated the political scene.
[citation needed] However, by the 1970s, critics believed Egypt's economy, with its large
public sector, had evolved into a "
Soviet-style system" of "inefficiency, suffocating
bureaucracy, and waste."
[2] Sadat also wanted to turn Egypt away from its focus on war with Israel and devotion of resources to a large military establishment. He believed
capitalist economic policies would build a substantial
private sector, and alliance with the
United States and the
West would lead to prosperity (
rakhaa رخاء) and eventually democratic pluralism.
[3] Infitah was not only ideologically but also politically motivated
[citation needed]: by aligning himself with the capitalist West, and the rich and powerful members of Egyptian society, Sadat differentiated himself from his predecessor Nasser while at the same time securing his position in power.
Shortcomings
The implementation of Infitah is generally considered to have been flawed in its over-ambitiousness and its appearance of having abandoned "solidarity with the poor."progressive taxation.
[7] At the same time the public sector continued to dominate the economy. The proportion of the population working for the state grew from 3.8% at the height of the Nasserite era, to 10% (about 35% of the country's entire labor force) after the full thrust of Infitah in the early 1980s. Despite promotion of foreign private investment, the "state's contribution to the formation of investment capital" (72%), barely changed from the mid-1960s to the end of the 1970s.
[8]
According to author Tarek Osman
"Infitah's main fault was that it was over ambitious. It failed to recognize the complexities of Egypt's socio-economic conditions ... It ignored the limitations of the country's administrative system and the power of the military establishment ... the mismatch between the skills of the Egyptian middle class and the various economic opportunities springing up as a result. ... As such, it was an unrealistically rapid developmental program that was doomed to fail."[9]
In 1977, negative public reaction to Infitah policies led to massive
spontaneous riots involving hundreds of thousands of Egyptians when the state announced that it was retiring subsidies on basic foodstuffs. On 6 October 1981, Sadat was
assassinated during a military parade in Cairo.
See also
Notes
- ^ Loyola, Mario (7 October 2013). "How We Used to Do It – American diplomacy in the Yom Kippur War". National Review. p. 1. Retrieved 2 December 2013.
- ^ Tarek Osman, Egypt on the Brink, p.67
- ^ Tarek Osman, Egypt on the Brink, p.117–8
- ^ Tarek Osman, Egypt on the Brink, p.125, 127
- ^ Tarek Osman, Egypt on the Brink, p.118–9
- ^ Tarek Osman, Egypt on the Brink, p.120–21
- ^ Tarek Osman, Egypt on the Brink, p.124
- ^ Tarek Osman, Egypt on the Brink, p.126
- ^ Tarek Osman, Egypt on the Brink, p.125
External links
