Abstract
This article provides a succinct overview of trends in social policy provision in the Middle East and North Africa since the late 1950s. The main argument made in this piece is that the region underwent a period of social policy divergence up until the mid-1970s, followed by increasing convergence of social policy provision. This is demonstrated with reference to educational, health, and social security policies. The article also provides a brief outline of the historical legacies of social policies in the region, arguing that these were not the root of the divergence that occurred in the post-colonial period. Rather, the key driver of this divergence was differences in the composition of the regimes’ ruling coalitions: republican regimes adopted a strategy of populist mobilisation toward the working and middle class; monarchical regimes opted for a strategy of selective co-optation of (tribal) notables, business elites, and the armed forces. The article also highlights major challenges of social policies in the region, such as problems of inclusion, equity, and long-term effects on distributive expectations, and highlights their political economy underpinnings.
Keywords
JEL Classification
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsNotes
- 1.
This article follows the World Bank definition of MENA. I will use the term Middle East in a broad sense including North African countries. As a member state of the OECD, Israel is not considered in this article at it exhibits a different socio-economic structure to most other MENA states.
- 2.
Due to a lack of systematic data, the graph includes only a limited number of countries (see the note), but anecdotal evidence based on fragmentary suggests a similar pattern in other MENA countries.
- 3.
A marked exception is Lebanon where private education has historically been very high.
Bibliography
Ahmed, Akhter U., Howarth E. Bouis, Tamar Gutner, and Hans Lofgren. 2001. The Egyptian food subsidy system: Structure, performance, and options for reform. Washington, DC: International Good Policy Research Institute.
Alon, Yoav. 2007. The making of Jordan: Tribes, colonialism and the modern state. London: LB. Tauris.
Ben Romdhane, Mahmoud. 2006. Social policy and development in Tunisia since independence. In Social policy in the Middle East: Economic, political, and gender dynamics, ed. Massoud Karshenas and Valentine M. Moghadam, 259–284. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Bennoune, Mahfoud. 1988. The making of contemporary Algeria, 1830–1987: Colonial upheavals and post-independence development. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Boudahrain, Abdellah. 2003. Social security pensions in the Maghreb: A study of Morocco and Tunisia. International Social Security Review 56 (3–4): 121–138.
Camau, Michel, Hédi Za’iem, and Hajer Bahri. 1990. État de santé. Besoin médical et enjeux politiques en Tunisie. Paris: Editions du CNRS.
Cammett, Melani. 2011. Partisan activism and access to welfare in Lebanon. Studies in Comparative International Development 46 (1): 70–97.
Cammett, Melani. 2014. Compassionate communalism: Welfare and sectarianism in Lebanon. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Cammett, Melani, and Sukriti Issar. 2010. Bricks and mortar clientelism: Sectarianism and the logics of welfare allocation in Lebanon. World Politics 62 (3): 381–421.
Cammett, Melani, Ishac Diwan, Alan Richards, and John Waterbury. 2015. A political economy of the Middle East. Boulder: Westview Press.
Catusse, Myriam. 2009. Maroc: un fragile État social dans la réforme neo-libérale. In L’État face aux débordements du social au Maghreb, ed. Myriam Catusse, Blandine Destremeau, and Éric Verdier, 187–228. Paris: Karthala.
CERMOC. 1992. Systèmes de santé et systemes de protection sociale dans le monde arabe. Maghreb-Machrek 138.
Chaabane, Mohamed. 2002. Towards the universalization of social security: The experience of Tunisia. ESS Paper No. 4. International Labour Office (ILO).
Chaudhry, Kiren Aziz. 1997. The price of wealth: Economies and institutions in the Middle East. Ithaca: Cornell University Press.
Clark, Janine A. 2004. Islam charity and activism: Middle-class networks and social welfare in Egypt, Jordan, and Yemen. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Drysdale, Alasdair. 1981. The regional equalization of health care and education in Syria since the Ba’thi revolution. International Journal of Middle East Studies 13 (1): 93–111.
Eibl, Ferdinand. 2016. Social dictatorships: The political economy of the welfare state in the Middle East and North Africa. Ph.D. Thesis University of Oxford.
Eilers, Wilhelm. 1978. Educational and cultural development in Iran during the Pahlavi Era. In Iran under the Pahlavis, ed. George Lenczowski, 303–331. Stanford: Hoover Institution Press.
El-Katiri, Laura, Bassam Fattouh, and Paul Segal. 2011. Anatomy of an oil-based welfare state: Rent distribution in Kuwait. Kuwait Programme Working Paper No. 13. LSE Middle East Centre.
Gal, John, and Rana Jawad. 2013. The Middle East. In The Routledge handbook of the welfare state, ed. Bent Greve, 242–251. London: Routledge.
Galal, Ahmed, and Taher Kanaan, eds. 2010. Financing higher education in Arab countries. Economic Policy Research Report Economic Research Forum.
Halliday, Fred. 1979. Iran: Dictatorship and development. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
Harik, Iliya. 1997. Economic policy reform in Egypt. Gainesville: University of Florida Press.
Harris, Kevan. 2010. Lineages of the Iranian welfare state: Dual institutionalism and social policy in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Social Policy and Administration 44 (6): 727–745.
Harris, Kevan. 2013. A Martyr’s welfare state and its contradictions. In Middle East authoritarianisms: Governance, contestation, and regime resilience in Syria and Iran, ed. Steven Heydemann and Reinoud Leenders, 61–81. Standford: Stanford University Press.Number January 2015
Hertog, Steffen. 2016. Is there an Arab variety of capitalism. ERF Working Paper No. 1068. Cairo: Economic Research Forum.
Hinnebusch, Raymond. 2010. Toward a historical sociology of state formation in the Middle East. Middle East Critique 19 (3): 201–216.
ILO. 2014. World social protection report 2014–15. Geneva: International Labour Organization (ILO).
IMF. 2011. Government finanical statistics. Database. http://www.imf.org/
IMF. 2014. Subsidy reform in the Middle East and North Africa. Washington, DC: International Monetary Fund.
Jawad, Rana, and Burcu Yakut-Cakar. 2010. Religion and social policy in the Middle East: The (re)constitution of an old-new partnership. Social Policy and Administration 44 (6): 658–672.
Kaddar, Miloud. 1989. Les rapports entre la sécurité sociale et le systéme de soins en Algerie. Cahiers du CREAD 19: 37–53.
Karshenas, Massoud, and Valentine M. Moghadam, eds. 2006. Social policy in the Middle East: Economic, political, and gender dynamics. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Knowles, Warwick. 2005. Jordan since 1989. A study in political economy. London: LB. Tauris.
Kohstall, Florian. 2012. Free transfer, limited mobility: A decade of higher education reform in Egypt and Morocco. Revue des mondes musulmans et de la Méditerranée 131: 91–109.
Loewe, Markus. 2010. Soziale Sicherung in den arabischen Ldndern. Baden-Baden: Nomos.
Lucas, Viola, and Thomas Richter. 2016. State hydrocarbon rents, authoritarian survival and the onset of democracy: Evidence from a new dataset. Research & Politics, 3(3).
Melki, Roger. 2000. La protection sociale au Liban: entre reflexe d’assistance et logique d’assurance. In UNDP conference on Linking Economic Growth and Social Development, Beirut.
Messkoub, Mahmood. 2006. Constitutionalism, modernization and islamization: The political economy of social policy in Iran. In Social policy in the Middle East: Economic, political, and gender dynamics, ed. Massoud Karshenas and Valentine M. Moghadam, 190–220. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Niblock, Tim, ed. 2015. Social and economic development in the Arab Gulf. Abingdon: Routledge.
Omar. 2012. Food subsidy reform. M.A. Thesis American University in Cairo.
Ouzzir, Saliha. 2006. La protection sociale face aux défis de la flexibilité et de la precarite de 1’emploi. Cahiers du CREAD 78: 45–69.
Owen, Roger, and Şevket Pamuk. 1998. A history of Middle East economies in the twentieth century. London: I.B.Tauris.
Safar Zitoun, Madani. 2009. La protection sociale en Algérie. Évolution, fonctionnement et tendacnes actuelles. In L’État face aux debordements du social au Maghreb, ed. Myriam Catusse, Blandine Destremeau, and Eric Verdier, 53–93. Paris: Karthala.
Soliman, Samer. 2011. The autumn of dictatorship. Fiscal crisis and political change in Egypt under Mubarak, viji. Stanford: Stanford University Press.
Thompson, Elizabeth. 2013. Colonial citizens: Republican rights, paternal privilege, and gender in French Syria and Lebanon. New York: Columbia University Press.
Wahid, Latif. 2009. Military expenditure and economic growth in the Middle East. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Waterbury, John. 1983. The Egypt of Nasser and Sadat. The political economy of two regimes. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
World Bank. 2008. The road not traveled: Education reform in the Middle East and North Africa. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
World Bank. 2012. World development indicators.
World Bank. 2013. Jobs for shared prosperity: Time for action in the Middle East and North Africa. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
World Bank. 2015. A roadmap to achieve social justice in health care in Egypt. Washington, DC: The World Bank.
WVS. 2012. World values survey wave 6. Database. http://www.worldvaluessurvey.org/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Section Editor information
Copyright information
© 2018 Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Eibl, F. (2018). Social Policies in the Middle East and North Africa. In: The New Palgrave Dictionary of Economics. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_3065
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-349-95189-5_3065
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-95188-8
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-95189-5
eBook Packages: Economics and FinanceReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences