The Social Networks of the Mubarak Family and the Businessmen

Abstract

The Social Networks of the Mubarak Family and the Businessmen Introduction The primary concern in this chapter is to conceptualise the personal relationships that developed between Mubarak with certain businessmen. This chapter argues that there are businessmen who did not engage in politics, for example, by running for parliamentary elections or joining political parties but who developed personal clientelistic relationships with Mubarak as well as with high-level government officials like businessmen Ahmed Bahgat and Mohamed Nosseir. Other businessmen, such as Naguib Sawiris (hereafter referred to as Naguib to avoid confusion with the rest of his family members) and his family, created network relationships with the Mubarak family. In these traditional clientelistic relations, businessmen varied in their proximity to Mubarak, his family, and high-level government officials, which had implications for the reallocation and abuse of state resources (for example, the selling of state-owned lands and state-owned enterprises at reduced prices, tax evasion, and the borrowing of public bank loans without collateral).