'Mubarak’s Egypt — Nexus of Criminality (Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring 2012, pp. 122-134)'

• Mubarak's Egypt — Nexus of Criminality, Philip Marfleet, State Crime Journal, Vol. 2, No. 2 (Autumn 2013), pp. 112-134

Summary

Employing a Marxist framework, this article examines how neo-liberal agendas for development pursued by successive regimes in Egypt have been associated with violence, fraud and corruption. Encouraged by international financial institutions and Western governments, the Egyptian state became a means of channelling public resources into private hands, using complex relations of privilege among officials and oligarchs. The article examines a growing conviction among Egypt’s people that the presidency and the ruling party represented a criminal enterprise. Addressing notions of “crony capitalism”, and the idea that the revolution of 2011 punished an aberrant political leader, it argues that bodies such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank have been party to consolidation of corrupt networks and development of an authoritarian state acting with impunity vis-à-vis the mass of Egypt’s people. The article raises pressing questions about global responsibilities for state crime manifested at the local level.

Connected Resources

• Punishment of Serious Human Rights Violations by Changing Internal Moral Codes (Vol. 2, No. 2, Autumn 2013, pp. 173-195)

• 

  Prison as a Liberated Zone: The Murals of Long Kesh, Northern Ireland (Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring 2012, pp. 149-172)

• Image Politics and the Art of Resistance in Syria (Vol. 2, No. 2, Spring 2012, pp. 135 – 148)

• 

  Philip Marfleet