Labour and the Future of the Egyptian Revolution

ForeignPolicy.com’s Middle East Channel published my latest thoughts on Egypt’s labor movement and its role in Egypt’s future democracy.  The essential argument is that if Egyptians want to establish a successful democracy, they must establish a social democracy along the lines of the Scandinavian countries.  After 20 years of structural adjustment in which the gains from liberalization of trade and privatization of state-owned enterprises were limited to a relatively narrow sector of the Egyptian elite and investments in public goods such as education and health steadily declined, democratic stability will require a strong commitment to redistributionist policies.  Recognition of the rights of independent labor unions in Egypt is an essential step toward achieving this necessary social transformation.