Coopération internationale et consolidation autoritaire : une comparaison de la politique de réforme en Egypte et au Maroc : le cas de l'enseignement supérieur

Abstract

This doctoral thesis examines the impact of international aid agencies on the reform agenda of North African countries. It analyses and compares the paths of higher education reform (1997-2007) in Egypt and Morocco, using analytical instruments pertaining to new approaches in public policy theory. For a long time, both countries appeared relatively immune against reform pressure from outside. Still, the analysis of their reform processes shows that the internationalization of higher education has been high on the agenda in both countries. Moreover, the participatory approach - as promoted by international aid agencies like the World Bank as part of its governance agenda - is practised in pushing through unpopular reform measures : in both countries stakeholders from political parties, non-governmental organization and the private sector took part in the reform process. The establishment of committees and commissions emerged as an important tool for those authoritarian regimes to widen their scope of participation. It is to be axamined how specific instruments, promoted by international organizations and bilateral donors, are integrated into a setting of authoritarian rule. The policy transfer between donors and recipients is relatively smooth as long as it concerns the realm of policies and a rather diffuse way towards internationalization through the implementation of foreign reform instruments in the university sector. Modes of transfer grow more subtle when the realms of power and politics are affected. This book provides an insight into the way authoritarian rulers adapt international reform commissions and committees, their members and their institutional environment. I shall argue that international aid agencies even provide the necessary support for this process of authoritarian consolidation, albeit non-intentionally and rather as an unintended consequence of their engagement. The comparison of Egypt's and Morocco's reform processes by means of an analysis of a specific sector (e. G. Higher education) serves as a microanalysis to understand how authoritarian regimes work. It also helps to understand the varieties of authoritarian regimes. Morocco was and is able to formulate a more comprehensive reform of its higher education system. The country demonstrates greater flexibility due to its monarchical system and its pluralistic nature. Egypt under Mubarak only applied a piecemeal type of reform, partly due to its rigid form of pluralism in a quasi-one-party system. Still, Morocco's flexibility should not be confused with a greater openness of its political arena. It is linked to a specific pattern of pluralism that is reproduced through the aforementioned reform processes