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5 - God, Mammon, and Transition

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  05 July 2014

Tarek Masoud
Affiliation:
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts
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Summary

The 2010 parliamentary election – the last of seven such contests held during Mubarak's reign – by all accounts represented a bitter regression in Egypt's hitherto halting, eminently modest democratic “progress.” The National Democratic Party (NDP) captured 473 of 504 elected seats, dominating the legislature to an extent not seen since the opposition-wide election boycott of 1990. As the opposition reeled, the ruling party congratulated itself and its “organizational secretary,” a steel magnate named Ahmed Ezz, for engineering such a stunning victory. Shortly after the conclusion of the elections, Ezz penned a series of articles in the state-owned newspaper, al-Ahrām, in which he declared that his party had won because it had “made a difference in the lives of the people.” In a widely mocked (but, as far as this author can ascertain, empirically correct) paragraph, the magnate-cum-party leader – described unironically in his author biography as “the man behind the sweeping win by the ruling party in the recent parliamentary elections” – explained

Overall, the standard of living for the Egyptian middle class has risen, as witnessed by 1.6 million students in private schools and their numbers are rising by 20 per cent a year. One million Egyptian bought new cars over the past five years (80 per cent of these cars cost less than LE 75,000), and permits for residential buildings rose by more than 10 per cent in 2009 alone. There are 39 private, joint and foreign banks in Egypt with more than 3,400 branches across the country. These banks, along with businesses in the fields of communications, computers, engineering consultancy and construction, provide thousands of job opportunities for the middle class, which means an increase in income.

Type
Chapter
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Counting Islam
Religion, Class, and Elections in Egypt
, pp. 123 - 154
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2014

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  • God, Mammon, and Transition
  • Tarek Masoud, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts
  • Book: Counting Islam
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511842610.008
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  • God, Mammon, and Transition
  • Tarek Masoud, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts
  • Book: Counting Islam
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511842610.008
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • God, Mammon, and Transition
  • Tarek Masoud, John F. Kennedy School of Government, Massachusetts
  • Book: Counting Islam
  • Online publication: 05 July 2014
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511842610.008
Available formats
×