ABSTRACT
Sixty years since political independence, the Arab world is largely a case of unaccomplished development. The region remains heavily dependent on exporting raw materials, mainly oil and gas, with little ability to upgrade into higher value-added products. Development strategy implies long-term state engagement in the regulation of the national economy in view of achieving social and economic transformation. It hence constitutes one critical junction between state policies and institutions and the economy. Why haven’t state strategies been successful at modifying the mode of insertion of the Arab world into the global division of labour? This chapter argues that Arab states generally lacked relative transformative capacity. They were unable to mobilize societal allies for social and economic transformation. Since their independence, modernization implied the creation of coalitions of beneficiaries rather than junior partners. This left Arab states in a position of providing resources to sustain the legitimacy of the socio-political order.
