Professional Syndicates in Egyptian Politics, 1952–1970

Abstract

In recent years the political roles of the People's Assembly, the Arab Socialist Union, town and village councils, labor unions, and other Egyptian governmental structures have been analyzed. Interestingly enough, most observers would probably agree that the Egyptian parliament is for the most part a rubber stamp; that Egypt is a partyless and not a one-party state; that it lacks a viable system of local government as distinct from the prevailing system of provincial administration; and that labor unions are official but not truly behavioral entities. In short, the Egyptian policy is dissected with conceptual tools borrowed from traditional institutional analysis, while it generally is recognized that Egyptian politics are not institutionalized, or, to use Moore's term, are ‘unincorporated’. This contradiction merits comment.