The revolutionary events of January and February 2011 opened the door for democratic transition in Egypt. This has yet to happen and the road to a stable and sustainable democracy will be long and full of challenges. However, political transition does not need to be accompanied by fundamental economic changes of the sort which took place in former communist countries during the 1990s. Unlike the
communist bloc economies, the Egyptian economy is mostly private and market driven, a result of the implementation of economic reforms during the previous ten years. However, the macroeconomic environment post-revolution has become increasingly worrying as a result of past fiscal and monetary imbalances, revolution-induced shocks and unstable politics. This inability to address pressing economic
challenges may hurt the nascent and fragile Egyptian democracy.

Read more in CASE E-Brief No. 07/2011 “Egypt: Political Transition vs. Economic Challenges?” by Marek Dabrowski

Dr. Marek Dabrowski is President of CASE. From the end of the1980s, he has been involved in policy advising and policy research in Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Africa and the Middle East, as well as numerous international research projects on monetary and fiscal policies, currency crises, international financial architecture, EU and EMU enlargement, European integration, European Neighbourhood Policy and the political economy of transition.