A Social Contract Moment

Egypt’s National Action Charter and Saudi Arabia’s Ten-Point Program were issued in 1962 amid a context of domestic and regional insecurity for both regimes. This article reviews the context that shaped each regime’s pledges for both political and (rather similar) socioeconomic reforms, challenging the common analysis of the so-called authoritarian bargain as a simplistic exchange of economic benefits for the political rights of citizens. Both documents also simultaneously embedded their proposed reforms in their country’s respective legacies, ushering in a new era of state-led development

Action (physics · Authoritarianism · Charter · Context (archaeology · Democracy · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Population · Socioeconomic status · Sociology · State (computer science · Islamic Studies and History · Law · Middle East and Rwanda Conflicts · Public Administration · Socioeconomic Development in MENA