CHILDREN OF THE ELITE: POLITICAL ATTITUDES OF THE WESTERNIZED BOURGEOISIE IN CONTEMPORARY EGYPT

This study aims to explore the political ideology of the Westernized wing of the Egyptian bourgeoisie through a study of the attitudes of its children. For the purposes of this paper, the Westernized bourgeoisie is taken to be those professional, business and government elements of the upper and upper-middle income strata who have received Western education. This group has provided much of Egypt's socioeconomic elite since modernization began because those with Western education have possessed the skills needed in this enterprise, and those with superior resources have had greater access to such education. Along with the military and bureaucratic wings of the state establishment-with which it overlaps-the Westernized bourgeoisie also constituted the main constituency of the Sadat regime and the social force most supportive of its policy course: the economic open door (infitah), de-Nasirization, peace with Israel and the American alliance. In the post-Sadat period, its views are likely to have a critical impact on the regime's direction. The Westernized bourgeoisie is thus important because it is now among the most socially and politically influential forces in Egypt. It is also worth study because it is a "limiting case": as the seemingly most pro-Western, liberal, and "rightist" of Egypt's social forces, it provides a useful benchmark from which to make rough assumptions about the opinions of other groups in the Egyptian public.