ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the relationship between economic development and the balance of power between central government and local rural communities in the Middle East. It explores the idea that those who sponsor development programs are interested not only in the potential economic benefits, but also in the political consequences and presents some concepts for grasping the process and reviews a number of cases and situations. "Center-building" implies the structural differentiation of the "center" of a society – its government, but also the "political class" of people who dominate the government – and its consequent reinforcement as a weight in society in relation to other sectors. In the Arab world this effort to offer a more equitable social system for the rural areas and thus to reduce the social tension resulting from the unbridled introduction of new technology for private gain is characteristic of Egypt, Syria, Iraq and Tunisia. Western Turkey has produced a number of village and small town studies.
