ABSTRACT
The quintessential hydraulic society of antiquity, Egypt had long experience with governmental intervention into the economy during the pharaonic and mamluk eras, even with direct management of the always vital agricultural sector. Egypt, the Third World's leading beneficiary of Western aid and among the most carefully studied of non-Western societies, has been painfully slow in adopting the new orthodoxy of development. The starting point for the investigation of the relationship between political authority and economic change in Egypt will be the presidency and the highest level of the political elite. Politically and ideologically isolated after more than a decade of high-profile existence in Egypt, United States Agency for International Development exemplifies problems encountered by external agents of reform. Within the space of a decade Egypt has been the largest recipient of Soviet aid and, after Israel, the leading beneficiary of US aid. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.
