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Egypt SOCIAL ORGANIZATION
In 1989 Egypt remained under the social, political, and
cultural dominance of an elite, a pattern it has retained since
pharaonic (see Glossary) times.
Although the personal,
ideological orientation, and cultural values of the ruling class
changed drastically after the 1952 Revolution, the gulf between
the urban elite and the popular masses remained large. A group
called the Free Officers came to power in 1952. The group, which
included people such as Gamal Abdul Nasser (former president of
Egypt), Anwar as Sadat (also former president of Egypt), and
Husni Mubarak (current president of Egypt), played an
instrumental role in carrying out the 1952 Revolution. The Free
Officers, along with their civilian allies, comprised a strongly
nationalistic cadre who believed the former ruling class had
betrayed the country's welfare to foreign interests. The Free
Officers, many of whom were not from the top social classes,
altered the country's structure of wealth and power. But
according to some scholars, the Free Officers' policies merely
changed the membership of the elite rather than causing its
demise.
The prerevolutionary elite rose to their position of power
through the country's entry into the world agricultural commodity
market in the nineteenth century
(see Rural Society
, this ch.).
The upper classes consisted of the royal family, absentee
landlords, professionals, and business people (merchants,
financiers, and a few industrialists). A disproportionately large
number of foreigners belonged to the elite groups in Cairo and
Alexandria. Opportunities for social mobility changed in response
to the transformation of the country's economy. A prosperous
landowning family, for example, might choose to secure its status
by sending one son to Al Azhar University for a career in
religion and another to one of the newly established secular
universities while encouraging still another to manage the
family's estates.
The civil bureaucracy established by Muhammad Ali (1805-49)
and elaborated under British hegemony provided a career for sons
of middle- and upper middle-class families. It gave employment to
the growing number of Egyptian professionals (mostly lawyers,
doctors, and engineers) and fueled the expansion of secular
education. The government bureaucracy employed the sons of
landlords, of prosperous farmers, and of civil servants
themselves.
Despite the major social changes in Egypt between 1800 and
1950, the upper-class elite continued to dominate politics in the
country. The educated middle class increasingly resented the
elite's control of government. This resentment was particularly
strong among military officers because their middle-class origins
impeded their advancement to the top decision-making ranks. Among
these military officers were the Free Officers.
Egypt's new political elite pledged to rid the country of
foreign influences and to broaden economic opportunities for the
general population. Nasser implemented numerous socialist
policies designed to alter the pattern of class stratification.
The June 1967 War, however, halted government initiatives for
redistributing wealth. Beginning in 1974, the government
introduced a series of laws intended to restore and promote
private ownership of previously socialized sectors of the
economy. These new policies, known as
infitah (opening or
open door; see Glossary), helped consolidate the class structure.
In 1989 Egypt continued to be a country with a skewed
distribution of wealth; about 2,000 families had annual incomes
in excess of ŁE35,000 (for the value of the
Egyptian pound--see Glossary) while
more than 4 million people earned less than ŁE200.
Data as of December 1990
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