Class grievances before and after the Arab uprisings

Abstract

To date, analysis of the role of entrepreneurs in the Arab uprisings has been limited. We use micro-level World Bank survey data collected from Arab entrepreneurs in the manufacturing and service sectors across a range of countries to highlight entrepreneur grievances as one proxy for the role that class might have played in the Arab uprisings. We find evidence that dissatisfaction with levels of corruption was particularly high among entrepreneurs in Egypt, Syria and Yemen on the eve of the Arab uprisings, but we also find that Arab entrepreneurs throughout the region share concerns when it comes to macroeconomic and political stability, infrastructural shortcomings and worker training, all of which are key to successful development. More recent data indicate that entrepreneurs in a number of countries (some of which had regime changes, while others did not) remain concerned about the same factors. Although they varied according to size and country, entrepreneur concerns at times went against pre-conceptions concerning Arab capitalist classes and were at odds with the recommendations of international financial institutions.