The recent history and politics of Egypt illuminates the tortuous and often contradictory relationship between liberalization and democracy in Third World countries. Eberhard Kienle argues that the much-vaunted reform and liberalization of Egypt's economy has been partial and selective, far from benefiting everybody. The author looks at how economic reform and liberalization have failed to produce a greater degree of political democracy: notions of elective pluralism, political accountability, clean elections, a genuinely free press, and the containment of police powers, which have turned out to be a great delusion masking restrictions on political participation and civil liberties. This book will shed much light on the dilemma between political and economic reform faced by so many developing countries today.

Eberhard Kienle is Lecturer in Middle East politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS, University of London) and Chair of its Centre for Near and Middle Eastern Studies. He is the author of Ba'th versus Ba'th: A Conflict between Syria and Iraq 1968-1989 (I.B. Tauris).