Political Economy of the Middle East (Spring 2002)

This seminar is study of the general features of economic development experience of the Middle East. This course will note the elements of similarity and the extent of diversity among the economies of the region, and will examine the strategies of planning and patterns of economic development in these economies. We will study the structural transformation of these economies, economic relations of the Middle East and the West, the dynamics of class conflict within these economies, economics of internal and international migration, OPEC and the oil market, and economics of war, occupation and sanction. In the past decade many Middle Eastern countries have been confronted with an Islamic revivalist movement that seeks to transform the economic organization of society according to what has been proposed as "Islamic Economics." In this course we will study the theoretical basis of various interpretations of Islamic economics and will examine its policy and planning proposals.

Office Hours

MWF: 10:30-11:20
W: 1:30-2:30
And by appointment. (You are always welcome to drop in.)

Course format

This course will be conducted as an "international development seminar." These seminars are frequently organized by development institutes or by international organizations to enhance the understanding of economic policy makers and scholars about economies of a particular region. Learning from each other is the main accomplishment of these seminars. We expect to attain the same. Each student in class will be viewed as a development specialist from a country. In the seminar we will collectively consider a number of general issues about the political economy of the Middle East. As a participant in the seminar you will examine these general issues and reflect upon them based on the development experience and circumstances of your country. Your semester-long assignment is to become familiar with the economic conditions and prospects of your country.

You may choose your country from the following list:

Afghanistan
Algeria
Egypt
Israel
Jordan
Kuwait
Lebanon
Libya
Qatar
Morocco
Saudi Arabia
Sudan
Syria
Tunisia
Turkey
United Arab Emirate
West Bank and Gaza
Central Asian Republics
(anyone, with my consultation)

Each country may be assigned to one student only. Come soon to claim your country! By Wednesday, January 23, you must have registered with me what your country is.

Required Reading

Naguib Mahfouz, Midaq Alley, Doubleday, 1976
Allan Richards and John Waterbury, A Political Economy of the Middle East, Second Edition, Westview Press, 1996.
Saeed Rahnema and Sohrab Behdad, Iran After a Revolution: Crisis of an Islamic State, I.B. Tauris/St. Martin's Press, 1996.
Readings on Electronic Reserves
Readings on Electronic Reserves (Eres) are marked with † in the syllabus.

To get to Electronic Reserves go to Denison Home Page and follow the path below:

Library/Consort/Course Reserves (Eres).
Or, go directly to http://eres.library.denison.edu/ Click on Electronic Reserves and Course Materials. Search by my name, "behdad". Click on any of the identifiers of the course. The password is EconomicS. (Note: The program is case sensitive.)

Your computer must have an Acrobat Reader to open the pages (they are pdf files). You may print the pages and read them at your convenience.

Disclaimer!! At any time vailability of Eres may be briefly interrupted for a variety of reasons (system being down, or electricity blackout, etc.) You are expected to plan ahead so that your work would note be impeded by such interruptions. Another words, be ahead, and be prepared!!!
Other sources: Occasionally I hand out readings in class, or refer you to additional sources.
NEWS: You are expected to be up to date on the economic/financial news of the Middle East as posted on any of the following sites:
- CNN http://cnn.com/WORLD/
- BBC http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world
- Financial Times http://globalarchive.ft.com/globalarchive/
- World News Service http://www.wn.com/
- ABC http://abcnews.go.com/
In addition to these sites you may use more specialized sites dealing mainly with your country.

On Mondays be prepared to present to class the most important economic/financial news of the week of your country.
Videos: Yes! We will see a number of videos in this course.

Grades

Grades will be given on the following basis:

Review of Midaq Alley (Monday, January 28, in class) 100 points
Review of a book about your country's economy (Wednesday, February 13, in class--book must be approved by February 4) 100 points
Paper/Exam 1 (February 20/25) 100 points: Questions for a take-home exam/paper will be given in class on Wednesday, February 20 , between 9:30-11:00 am. Your Paper/Exam is due, on Monday, February 25, in class.
Research Proposal (Monday, March 4, in class) 25 points
Paper/ Exam II (April 10/April 15) 100 points:Questions for a take-home paper/exam will be given in class on Wednesday, April 10 . Your paper/ exam is due on Monday April 15, in class)
Class presentation (April 17,22, and 24) 25 points: A 10-minute class presentation of your research paper
Research paper (due Monday, April 29, in class) 200 points: A fifteen page research paper on a pressing problem of your economy
Class contributions 150 points: Based on your thoughtful contributions to the discussions of issues in class. (This is not a grade for attendance.)
Total 800 points

Attendance is an absolute requirement of this course. Class begins at 2:30 pm, sharp. If you come to class unprepared, you are counted absent.

Assignments

All the assignment must be typed.

There is penalty for late assignments (20% a day).

Assignments due in class must be turned in at the beginning of class (at 2:30 pm).

Review of Midaq Alley
Middle East is a foreign land to many of us. To acquire a "feel" for life of the people in the Middle East, I would like you to read Midaq Alley, by Naguib Mahfouz, a winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Midaq Alley is a novel reflecting people's struggle for survival in an old district of Cairo, Egypt. You will like it. I would like you to write a five-page review (about 1,500 words) of this novel. Your review should deal with the political economy of Midaq Alley. In writing your review concentrate on the process of social transition that Mahfouz portrays for Midaq Alley. Point to the contradictions and the pains of this transition, and examine the resulting changes in the social institutions of Midaq Alley.

I would like you to write your review from the vantage point of anyone of the characters of the novel.

Your review (in 1,500 words) may be in the general format of academic book reviews, precise and analytical, with points that you would like to raise about the book and its perception of the political economy of social transformation. For those of you who may have additional creative urge, I give you the option of writing your "review" as a fiction. That is, you may extend the story that you have read in any direction that would enable you demonstrate your view. There are many possibilities. You may have a continuation of events or dialogues in Midaq Alley. You may introduce a new character, or visit Midaq Alley (or some of its current inhabitants twenty, thirty years later and see how they are). If you take this path you do not have a page limit. Write as much as it takes you to make your point, but don't be wasteful with words.
Book Review on the economy of your country
A critical review of a book (in 1,500 words) on the economy of your country. The book must be printed in 1996 or later, and be concerned primarily with the economic issues in your country. (I must approve the book for review by February 4.) This book review should explain the scope and the method of analysis of the book, the issues that it tackles and the policy conclusions that it reaches about the pattern of development of your country in the recent decades. Your review should show that you have a good grasp of the basic problems of the economy and that you have appreciated the fine points of the analysis of the author of the book that you are reviewing.
Exam/papers
Exam/paper is a take home exam. Your responses are expected to reflect the depth of your theoretical understanding about the issue and the extent of your knowledge about the literature that we have studied in this course. (This means that I would like to see if you have read and understood the readings for the class and how well you can synthesize what we read and what we have discussed in class). You are also encouraged to draw from the experience of your country and the literature that deals with it. All references, however, must be fully identified. (Your responses should be written in the format and style of a research paper). You will have three full days to write your exam/paper. The expected length of your responses is about 12-15 pages.
Research Proposal
A two page explanation of your research plan. The proposal should include the objective of your paper, your thesis (or theses), your method of analysis, the issues that you will be considering, your sources of statistical data, and some problems that may be anticipated as well as your strategy for overcoming them. (See Research Paper below).
Research Paper
Your research paper (in about 5000-7000 words, plus references, tables and graphs) should examine the economic development experience of your country in the course of its economic transformation in the past decades. The historical interval that you choose for your country depends largely on the country that you are studying and the special focus that you may have in your study. You are quite free in choosing your scope of analysis. My most important concern is to see how well you can define and analyze a problem. Therefore, your paper should be analytical and not descriptive. You are always welcome to come and see me about your paper. As we all know (at least theoretically) the more we plan our work ahead, the more it is probable that we do a good job. So come and see me early.
Class Presentation
Your presentation should be 10 minutes (and no more), to be followed by a brief discussion by our class. Do not read your paper. If you do, you will see how easy it is put a class to sleep. Present the main points of your paper in a way that would be interesting for your audience. An effective presentation is usually followed by many interesting questions.

Sources and reference material:

Our library has a good collection of books on the Middle East. In addition, you may use Consort and OhioLINK resources.

You will find the following periodicals useful:
- MEED (Middle East Economic Digest). A weekly magazine of economic and business news, published in London. I would like to see that you are up to date on the news of your country in this magazine, which is very highly regarded in the Middle East.
- The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, A monthly magazine of general interest on the Middle East.
- International Journal of Middle East Studies. Quarterly, scholarly, multidisciplinary.
- Middle East Studies. Quarterly, scholarly, multidisciplinary.
- The Middle East Journal, Quarterly, scholarly, multidisciplinary.
- Middle East Report- Bi-monthly, analytical reports and scholarly articles.
You may search articles published in the past issues of these or other journals using a number of indexes available in the library and online.
Publications of the United Nations and its various organizations (e.g., ILO, IMF, the World Bank, UNCTAD, UNESCO) have useful statistical series for all member countries, including those of the Middle East.
I am available to discuss your specific reference needs and help you finding them.
Web Sites: There are many sites on the WWW for almost every country. Below I list only a few general sites, each with some selected link. Don't spend too much time surfing the web. Find a couple of sites that help you to learn about your country.
- Middle East Studies Association http://www.mesa.arizona.edu/
- University of Texas, Austin http://menic.utexas.edu/menic.html
- Harvard University http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~mideast/inMEres/inMEres.html
- University of Bergen, Norway http://www.hf-fak.uib.no/smi/links.html
- Gulf/2000 Project http://gulf2000.columbia.edu/
- International Monetary Fund (IMF) http://www.imf.org/
- World Bank http://www.worldbank.org/

Topics of discussion

Pre-Introduction
- Midaq Alley, by Naguib Mahfouz, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature. Please read it in the first week of our class.
1. Introduction
- Mohamed El-Erian and Stanely Fischer, "Is MENA a Region? The Scope for Regional Integration," in J.W. Wright, Jr. (eds.) Economic and Political Impediments to Middle East Peace, London, MacMillan Press, 2000.
- Richards&Waterbury, chapters 1&2.
2- Middle East and the world economy
- Charles Issawi, "The Middle East in the World Context,' in G. Sabagh, The Modern Economic and Social History of the Middle East in its World Context, Cambridge University Press, 1989.
- Fatemeh Moghadam, "State, Political Stability and Property Rights," in Rahnema&Behdad, chapter 3.
3- Economic growth and structural change
- Richards, chapter 3.
4- Economic growth and transformation of human resources
- Richards, chapters 4 & 5.
- Phillippe Fargue, " From Demographic Explosion to Social Rapture," Middle East Review (MER), #190, September 1994.
- Homa Hoodfar, "Devices and Desires: Population Policy and Gender Roles in the Islamic Republic," MER, #190, September 1994.
5- Women and the economy
- Julie Peteet and Barbara Harlow, " Gender and Political Change," MER #173, November-December 1991.
- Deniz Kandiyoti, "Women, Islam and the State," MER #173, November-December 1991.
- Jenny White, " "Women and Work in Istanbul; Linking the Urban Poor to the World Market," MER #173, November-December 1991.
- Parvin Alizadeh, "The State and the Social Position of Women: Female Employment in Post-Revolutionary Iran," in Alizadeh (ed.) The Economy of Iran: Dilemmas of an Islamic State, I.B. Tauris, 2001.
- Haideh Moghissi, "Public Life and Women's Resistance ," in Rahnema&Behdad, chapter 11.
6- Agrarian transformation
- Richards, chapter 6
- Ahmad Ashraf, "From the White Revolution to the Islamic Revolution, in Rahnema&Behdad, chapter 1.
7- Oil & OPEC
- M. Yeganeh, " The Trends and Prospects of the Middle Eastern Oil Industry," in H. Esfandiari E. A.L. Udovitch, (eds.) The Economic Dimensions of Middle Eastern History, Darwin Press, 1990.
- Vaclav Smil, Future of Oil: trends and Surprises, OPEC Review, Volume 22, Issue 4, December 1998, (http://journals.ohiolink.edu/cgi-bin/sciserv.pl?collection=journals&journal=02770180)
- Djavad Salehi-Isfahani, "The Oil; Sector after the Revolution," in Rahnema&Behdad, chapter 6.
8- State and the economy
- Richards, chapters 7, 8 & 9
- Karen Pfeifer, et al., "Reform or Reaction? Dilemmas of Economic Development in the Middle East," MER, # 210, Spring 1999.
- Karen Pfeifer, "How Tunisia, Morocco, Jordan and even Egypt became IMF "Success Stories" in the 1990s," MER, # 210, Spring 1999.
- Timothy Mitchell, "Dreamland: The Neoliberaism of Your Desires," MER, # 210, Spring 1999.
9- Class and inequality
- Richards, chapter 10
- Volker Perthes, "A Look at Syria's Upper Class: The Borgeoisie and the Ba'th," MER #170, May-June 1991.
- Joel Benin, "The Working Class and Peasantry in the Middle East," MER, # 210, Spring 1999.
- Shahrzad Mojab and Amir Hassanpour, " The Politics of National and Ethnic Diversity," Rahnema&Behdad, chapter 10.
10- Migration
- Richards, chapter 15
- Roger Owen, "The Movement of Labor in and out of the Middle East over the Last Two Centuries," in Sabagh, The Modern Economic and Social History.
- Michael Humohrey, " Migrants, Workers and Refugees: The Political Economy of Population Movements in the Middle East," MER #181, March-April 1993.
- David Murrey, "Recent Trend in Middle Eastern Migration," MER #211, Summer 1999.
- Anh Nga Longva, "Keeping Migrant Workers in Check: The Kafala System in the Gulf," MER #211, Summer 1999.
- Mary Crain, " New North African Immigration to Spain," MER #211, Summer 1999.
- Engseng Ho, "Yemenis on Mars," MER #211, Summer 1999.
11- From Rvolution to Economic Liberalization
- Ali Rahnema and Farhad Nomani, Competing Shi'i Sub-System in Contemporary Iran," in Rahnema&Behdad, chapter 3.
- Rahnema and Behdad, "Crisis of an Islamic State," in Rahnema&Behdad, Introduction.
- Behdad, "The Post-Revolutionary Crisis," Rahnema&Behdad, chapter 4.
- Hossein Farzin, "The Political Economy of Foreign Exchange Reform," in Rahnema&Behdad, chapter 7.
12- War, Sanction and Occupation
- Tim Niblock, "Pariah States" & Sanctions in the Middle East, Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 2001, pp. 1-15, 97-109, 129-195.
- Sarah Graham-Brown, "Sanctioning Iraq: A Failed Policy," MER # 215, Summer 2000.
- Richard Garfield, " The Public Health Impact of Sanctions: Contrasting Responses of Iraq and Cuba," MER # 215, Summer 2000.
- Stanley Fischer, Economic Transition in the Occupied Territory," Journal of Palestine Studies, Summer 1994.
- Sara Roy, "De-Development Revisited: Palestinian Economy and Society Since Oslo," Journal of Palestine Studies, Spring 1999.
- George Abed, "The Palestinian Economy: Alternative Futures," in Nemat Shafik, Economic Challenges Facing Middle Eastern and North African Countries, London: MacMillan Press, 1998.