The Egyptian Social Contract

Examines state-middle class reciprocities in the making, persistence and failure of the Egyptian social contract

Foregrounds the social history of state citizen relations
Explores the intricacies of both the formal and informal layers of Egypt's social contract, as well as the gaps between the two
Investigates how the Egyptian social contract interacted with changing global trends in socioeconomic development and governance
Employs public discourse, legislation and the analysis of institutional capacity and state allocation in an innovative, interdisciplinary study of the social contract
Provides a rich context for our understanding of the contemporary search for a new social contract in Egypt and the Middle East

The Egyptian Social Contract explores the intricacies of the relationship between the state and its citizens, from the establishment of the semi-independent Egyptian nation in 1922 until the 2011 Uprising. The book studies how and why a social contract that had been reformed in the aftermath of World War II became the core of state citizen relations under President Nasser. It further explores the long and tortuous search for a new social contract in Egypt since the 1970s.

Relli Shechter looks at how this social contract channelled socioeconomic development over time, creating an Egyptian middle-class society. Shechter probes a political economy in which class vision and interests in development intertwined with the rise and entrenchment of authoritarianism. The perseverance of this social contract has mostly inhibited socioeconomic and political reforms, or the making of a new social contract, in Egypt. Such reforms would have challenged Egypt's ruling elite, and no less so its middle-class society.