Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt

Download or read book Elections and Distributive Politics in Mubarak’s Egypt written by Lisa Blaydes and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2010-11-22 with total page 289 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite its authoritarian political structure, Egypt's government has held competitive, multi-party parliamentary elections for more than 30 years. This book argues that, rather than undermining the durability of the Mubarak regime, competitive parliamentary elections ease important forms of distributional conflict, particularly conflict over access to spoils. In a comprehensive examination of the distributive consequences of authoritarian elections in Egypt, Lisa Blaydes examines the triadic relationship between Egypt's ruling regime, the rent-seeking elite that supports the regime, and the ordinary citizens who participate in these elections. She describes why parliamentary candidates finance campaigns to win seats in a legislature that lacks policymaking power, as well as why citizens engage in the costly act of voting in such a context.