ABSTRACT
The increased globalization and economic liberalization of the past 40 years have changed the dynamics of elite participation in domestic political economies considerably. Lines once more firmly drawn between the various arenas in which political and economic developments play out—the domestic and international; the private sector and the state—have become increasingly obscured. Egyptian elites were not the only beneficiaries of “private sector” development programs. International investors also gained from the networks created around the initiatives, affording them lucrative partnerships with their Egyptian counterparts. Manipulation of industrial policies involving foreign capital also became a central arena for entrenching the privileges gained from the 1990s during the Businessmen Cabinet era—in particular, policies concerning exports and subsidies for industrial upgrading. The importance of exports for economic development in the context of globalized markets has been well established.
