Businesses in the Middle East and North Africa have failed to bring sustainable development despite decades of investment from the private and public sectors. Yet we still know little about why the Arab Uprisings failed to usher in more transparent government that could break this enduring cycle of corruption and mismanagement. Examining posttransition politics in Egypt and Tunisia, Kubinec employs interviews and quantitative surveys to map out the corrupting influence of businesses on politics. He argues that businesses must respond to changes in how perks and privileges are distributed after political transitions, either by forming political coalitions or creating new informal connections to emerging politicians. Employing detailed case studies and original experiments, Making Democracy Safe for Business advances our empirical understanding of the study of the durability of corruption in general and the dismal results of the Arab Uprisings in particular.

‘Comparing firm behavior in Egypt and Tunisia with original data and innovative empirical techniques, Kubinec shows how business actors in these countries adopted varied patterns of rent-seeking behavior depending on whether or not a single institutional actor controlled the distribution of rents. There is much at stake in this careful analysis: Kubinec shows that democratic transitions are inherently precarious and are highly contingent on the extent to which democratic actors wrest control over access to rents.’

Melani Cammett - Clarence Dillon Professor of International Affairs, Harvard University

‘The Arab Spring revealed the crony capitalist networks that had gained prominence in the era of liberalization. This book enriches our understanding by offering a powerful narrative on how business and politics evolved after the Arab Spring. Focusing on Egypt and Tunisia and highlighting the important role of the military in the economy, Kubinec’s analysis offers us a novel theory, rich and rigorous empirical evidence, and a convincing story. This is a rare feat to achieve in political economy scholarship on the Middle East. This book is a must-read for all those interested in political economy, in general, and the Middle East in particular.’

Adeel Malik - Associate Professor in Economies of Muslim Societies, University of Oxford

‘Kubinec articulates the dilemmas of business elites in Tunisia and Egypt’s 2011 uprisings and subsequent transitions very clearly and effectively. Where political science might in other conditions expect business elites to push for democratization - that whole middle class demanding a political seat at the table thing - in these cases only well-connected businesses could thrive. Crony capitalism meant that big business both benefited from and remained existentially dependent upon the regime, which controlled access to contracts, raw materials, licenses, markets, finance and everything else needed to survive.’

Marc Lynch Source: Substack