ABSTRACT
The leading elites have understood that their rule depends on economic growth and that economic growth presupposes institutional arrangements such as respect for private property and the coordination of economic processes mainly by market processes. Pan-African arrangements will presumably remain less intense and less binding, and they will proceed only, if constructed in a way which is compatible with Europeanization. State-led cooperatives were endowed with the monopoly of giving agricultural credit and selling seeds and artificial fertilizers. The nationalization of the Suez Canal in 1956 and of foreign property after the ensuing British-French-Israeli attack added further sources of state income. Sentiments of Arab identity were widespread, and for the regime Islamic traditions were important as a source of political legitimacy. The whole region of North Africa has therefore seen a move towards open market economies and away from Arab Socialism, Import Substitution Industrialization and inward-oriented strategies.
