ABSTRACT
There is no better area of the polity to observe the interweaving of interests and institutions, as well as the chaotic nature of developments, than in the reorganization of the Arab Socialist Union. In early July 1976, Boutros Ghali, Director of the Institute of Strategic and Political Studies of al-Ahram and later to be Foreign Minister during the crucial months of November and December 1977, posed what he considered a vital question:
What is the desired relationship between the Arab Socialist Union, as the framework for political activity, and the three platforms, as independent organizations, to work within this framework? These relations, in spite of hundreds of speeches and hundreds of reports, have not been clearly defined and there is no agreement on their contours. The true importance of these relations will appear in the coming elections. 1
