Egypt Under Sadat: Elites, Power Structure, and Political Change in a Post-Populist State

In this paper I examine the transformations in the Egyptian state—specifically in the political establishment—as Egypt moves into a new stage of development characterized by economic liberalization and a westward political realignment. I examine persistence and change in the structure and distribution of power in the establishment, in elite ideology, recruitment practices and social composition, and in the patterns and cleavages of intra-elite politics. Through this examination I try to assess the relative strength and effect of forces pulling the political system toward political liberalization on the one hand, and toward conservative authoritarianism on the other. I conclude that the current regime remains an authoritarian one, but that it has taken on an increasingly conservative face and is characterized by a greater, if uninstitutionalized, pluralism limited to elite levels. It is implicit in the analysis that the open door policy cannot be fully explained without reference to these sociopolitical transformations.