What Egypt Needs

Even if it were possible for liberal democracy to take root in the arid soil of Egyptian culture, a day at the polls would hardly suffice to set Egypt on the road to modernity.

Yesterday, I suggested that the debate about how best to affect a transition to liberal democracy in Egypt was misguided. Egypt would do best to follow China and institute free market capitalism before worrying about free elections.

Today, Bill Frezza takes up the same point, more substantively. As he writes: “The deepest malady afflicting the Egyptian people, and most other underdeveloped countries for that matter, is not lack of the vote. It's the inability to open a bakery without spending two years hacking and bribing your way through a bureaucracy designed to stomp on independent businesses. It's the impossibility of getting clear title to the land your home is built on. It's the indignity of being told that you can't sell vegetables without a fistful of permits issued by corrupt and inaccessible political appointees. It's the dashed dreams that come from earning a college degree then finding out that the only jobs available are government jobs reserved for the well-connected.” Link here.

Frezza adds: “So the international community should stop trying to foment some grand bargain aimed at achieving an impossible balance of political power among implacable foes. Instead the unified goal should be to free Arab economies from the straightjacket of government control regardless of who is in the driver's seat.”

Still and all, can the transition to free enterprise can take place “regardless of who is in the driver’s seat?” In truth, it would probably take an exceptional, but somewhat authoritarian figure to provide the right leadership.

If Frezza is right, and I think he is, then Egypt needs its own Deng Xiaoping. What are the chances of that occurring?