Arab Socialism Essay ⋆ Political Science Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

This example Arab Socialism Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.

Arab socialism is the name given to an ideology that was particularly prevalent in the Arab world in the 1960s, combining Arab nationalism with policies designed to favor the less privileged segments of society—notably involving land reform, a planned economy, subsidized prices for necessities, and the nationalization, in whole or in part, of large business enterprises. It represented an attack both on economic underdevelopment and extreme inequality. The term Arab socialism emphasized the ideology’s allegedly distinctive features in comparison with other kinds of socialism. Although socialist ideas appeared in the Arab world as early the late nineteenth century, the notion of a specifically Arab kind of socialism seems to have originated with the Baath Party and later was embraced by the regime of President Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt (after 1958, the United Arab Republic, UAR). The term also was applied in Arab countries such as Libya and Algeria that at that time were described as “progressive,” or “liberated.” It tended to be an expression of Arab nationalism and, with its rejection of capitalism and communism, of nonalignment in the cold war.

Origins Of Egypt’s Arab Socialism

Characterized by pragmatism, the Nasser regime gradually evolved from a vague emphasis on social justice and democracy and opposition to feudalism and monopoly and the domination of capital in 1952 to fully embracing Arab socialism in the early 1960s. A first step in this direction was the enactment in 1952 of an Agrarian Reform Act that limited ownership to two hundred faddans (slightly more than two hundred acres or eighty-one hectares) and providing small plots for previously landless peasants, but in the beginning the regime showed signs of favoring private enterprise. Then nationalization occurred in several specific circumstances, as in the case of the Suez Canal Company in 1956 and in 1960 some leading banks. By the late 1950, references to a “socialist, democratic, and cooperative society” abounded, and the first of a series of five-year plans went into effect in 1960.

Nationalization of large enterprises accelerated during 1961, thus completing the transition to Arab socialism. The state took possession of all banks, insurance companies, and forty-four companies involved in various sectors and acquired a 50 percent interest in eighty-six other enterprises. The maximum ownership in some companies was set at LE10,000 (US$1,825).

Other nationalization followed during subsequent months. Thus Egypt’s economy became one of the most statist outside the communist world, although it left considerable room for small-scale private ownership, particularly in agriculture. The maximum salary was set at LE5,000 (US$912), and the tax on incomes more than LE10,000 (US$1,825) at 90 percent. Maximum land ownership per individual was reduced to one hundred faddans (forty hectares) and eventually to fifty faddans.

Arab Socialism And Communism

Emphasis was given to contrasts between Arab socialism and communism. Listing seven major differences between the two, Nasser’s confidant, Mohamed Heikal (Muhammad Haykal), began by arguing that Arab socialism rejects the communist solution of “proletarian dictatorship” and the elimination of classes through violence in favor of giving the underprivileged their rightful share of property “within a framework of national unity” without resorting to bloodshed. Unlike the communist equation of property with exploitation, he described the Arab socialist belief in property earned through work, which indeed should be extended to as many people as possible.

Some observers have questioned the depths of Nasser’s socialist transformation. As there was not enough land to go around, most peasants remained landless, and landholding families retained much of their property and dominated local politics. News of continuing “feudalism” in 1966 created a sensation, followed by steps to rectify this. Some explain this by pointing to a leadership that came disproportionately from the equivalent of the Russian kulak class or, in a few cases, from big landholding families. Marxists talked about the rise of a new class of privileged technocrats and a new “state bourgeoisie” and pointed to the evasion of progressive taxes.

Seeking Indigenous Roots

Arab socialists generally sought to establish that their ideology had indigenous roots. Islam in particular came to be interpreted by Arab socialists as having had socialist principles that had been disregarded in subsequent centuries. Nasser argued that all religions “call for social justice.” For example, he maintained that gross inequality could not have emerged if the Islamic requirement of giving 2.5 percent of one’s wealth each year to the poor had been followed.

Decline Of Arab Socialism

With Nasser’s death in 1970 and succession by Anwar Sadat, Arab socialism gradually faded away. Sadat adopted the idea of infitah (opening) to capitalist investment. State controls over the economy have been removed slowly and land reform undone. Nasser’s social revolution has largely been reversed.

Bibliography:

Ansari, Hamid. Egypt:The Stalled Society. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1986.
Binder, Leonard. In a Moment of Enthusiasm: Political Power and the Second Stratum in Egypt. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1978.
Dekmejian, H. Hrair. Egypt under Nasir: A Study of Political Dynamics. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1971.
Hanna, Sami A., and George H. Gardner, eds. Arab Socialism: A Documentary Survey. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 1969.
Ismael,Tareq Y. The Arab Left. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1976.
Karpat, Kemal H., ed. Political and Social Thought in the Contemporary Middle East, 2nd ed. New York: Praeger, 1982.
Khadduri Majid. Political Trends in the Arab World:The Role of Ideas and Ideals in Politics. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1970.
O’Brien, Patrick. The Revolution in Egypt’s Economic System: From Private Enterprise to Socialism, 1952–1965. London: Oxford University Press, 1966.