ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the carrot—the inducements that the regime manipulates to recruit and retain loyal followers. In the countryside the agricultural bureaucracy, including cooperatives, the extension service, and the Principal Bank for Agricultural Development and Credit, through which all subsidized inputs are distributed and which is virtually the sole source of agricultural credit, are used to provide the appropriate carrots and sticks. Strikes elicit immediate repressive reactions by government. Agricultural cooperatives, especially those in agrarian reform areas, whose members are exclusively small peasants, have been stripped of functions and depoliticized. The control of autonomous political expression in Egypt is being relaxed simultaneously with the implementation of a policy of economic austerity. The gradual loss of authority of the Ministry of Insurance and Social Affairs over voluntary associations comprised principally of the articulate bourgeoisie, of whatever political outlook, is indicative of a more general trend.
