Middle East
Table of Contents
Egypt is one of the largest states in the African continent, having acquired independence in the early 1960’s. Abdel Nasser was the first president of the republic of Egypt, and later on Sadat succeeding him. Many analysts view Nasser as one of those leaders who depicted resistance to systems of governance that did not match with their policies. This is true in some instances. A look at Nasser’s government indicates glimpses of an authoritarian leader who had his word as the final decision. As much as invited suggestions from other leaders with similar views to his, he was somehow rigid in accepting critical national issues.
Nasser’s Stand on the Economy of Egypt
The fact that Nasser had a lot of sympathy to the poor people acted as an extra force or acceleration towards the achievement of his reforms. Nasser wanted to see a country that could sustain itself in terms of food security and production. Therefore, his sympathy for the poor could only act as an impetus to the realization of that vision. In his program of Arab socialism, Nasser wanted to come up with a harmonization of capitalism on one hand, which pundits viewed as exploitative, with a slightly rigid socialist state on the soviet model. To achieve reforms in the sector, Nasser rhetorically adopted an unrestricted social and political democracy with an aim of achieving social justice. However, the truth is that Egypt never realized the dream of becoming a democratic state, maintaining its authoritarian state, with minimum justice to the public. Despite all the shortcomings in the attempts of becoming a democratic and liberal country, Nasser managed to carry out massive land reforms in the land ownership policies, in Egypt.
Calculate the cost of essay
How Egypt Managed to Fight European Countries
There are certain principles that governed Egypt in the fight against manipulation by the European masters. For instance, the elimination of imperialism is one of the factors that largely contributed to the strong position held by the Egypt government against manipulation from western masters. Through the removal of imperialism, Egypt managed to eradicate most of the traitors that the European masters were using to manipulate the Egypt administration. Without the existence of such traitors, Nasser had a relatively easier task in tackling issues that colonial masters brought on board. Initially, such traitors could give high profile information to the administration of the European countries, a move that affected attempts to succeed in carrying out any reforms in governance.
Another way in which the government of Egypt, under the leadership of Abdel Nasser managed to conquer influence from the western countries is the eradication of monopoly. This involved decentralization of resources and service delivery to various regions in the country. Distribution was equal and fair, lowering the degree of monopoly power in the economy. Therefore, European countries could not find it easy to manipulate large or prominent capital owners in the economy, who could massively influence economic decisions. Thus, through the decentralization of resources that educed monopoly power among individuals, European countries could not manipulate Egypt. Such an instance depicts President Nasser as a voice of resistance, since we see him fighting hard to resist manipulation.
In the process of eradicating feudalism, it is evident that most of the fertile land and sand most productive parts of Egypt agriculturally were in the hands of influential property owners, who were mostly white men or of European origin. Similarly, all other areas that were locations for massive agricultural companies were under the ownership of foreign countries. However, with the initiation of the agricultural land reforms act by President Nasser, approximately 944,457 hectares of land are now back in the hands of citizens of Egypt. This was a massive step in the development of the economy of Egypt, having in mind that agriculture is one of the most lucrative sectors in the economy of Egypt. The retrieval of land from the foreign masters also eradicated cases of employee exploitation, a vice that was common in Egypt during the days of pre independence. Under the agrarian reform law, President Nasser fought for the consolidation of cooperation and interest free financing of agricultural land. He also ensured that the public was in ownership of the larger portion of the means of production, more so land, enhancing capitalism. The establishment of social justice was also an impetus towards the war against European influence. For instance, the country ensured sufficiency in production, which is a basic requirement for justice, since justice without sufficiency would lead to monopolization of wealth.
Benefit from Our Service: Save 25% Along with the first order offer - 15% discount, you save extra 10% since we provide 300 words/page instead of 275 words/page
Sadat, on the other hand, tried to change the image of Egypt as a purely agricultural state. He tried to rebrand the state as an industrial state. The country accelerated its mechanization program, and at present, industry contributes 20% of Egypt’s national income, employing 13% of the total labour force.
Conclusion
The above analysis clearly indicates that President Nasser and Sadat had a dedication to ensuring that the economy of Egypt thrives, despite the hindrances that come along, especially from the European countries.