Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 25)
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- عنوان
- Democratic Palestine : 35 (ص 25)
- المحتوى
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The Prevailing Arab Order
[his article provides a synopsis of the economic and political characteristics of the Arab order that
prevails today by virtue of the policies of the existing regimes, among which the reactionary ones have
gained preeminence. As such, it does not cover the other major actor in the area - the progressive and na-
tionalist parties and mass movements. Nor does it give much attention to the social aspects of the current
situation. We hope to address these latter topics in future articles, in conjunction with the question of
democracy in the Arab world.
Crisis characterizes the present-day Arab societies. This crisis
includes all aspects of life - political, economic and social...
For objective and subjective reasons, all strata of the bourgeois
have failed to find a solution for this crisis. The existing
revolutionary alternatives have failed as well...» - Karim
Mroweh, member of the Lebanese Communist Party’s Polit-
bureau.
Generally speaking, politics is part of the superstructure
erected over the economic base of the society. Politics ex-
presses economy, while economy ultimately determines
politics. The Arab world is no exception. However, the gap
between the development of the superstructure and the
economic base can create the impression that there is a separa-
tion between politics and economy.
The ruling class that has evolved in most of the Arab coun-
tries has relinguished the aspirations for independence. It
submitted to the conditions of the world capitalist system, and
led the process of incorporating the Arab world into this
system. With the growth of private ownership of land and
capital, the parasitic nature of the Arab economy has increas-
ed. The social strata that profited from the growth of private
ownership, formed a capitalist class that took over power
either alone or in alliance with the previous ruling class, the
feudalists.
An example is Saudi Arabia. Up until the fifties, Saudi
Arabia was a tribal, feudalist society. The oil boom began the
process of transformation towards a_ feudalist-capitalist
system. State intervention and the development of a public
sector paved the way for the oil revenues to accumulate in the
hands of the state which is synonymous with the ruling family.
In the seventies, national industry developed, but the industrial
strata of the bourgeoisie remained embryonic due to the many
obstacles it confronted. Industry did not attract the royal
family (tribe), or the merchants. Thus, capital was concen-
trated in domestic and foreign trade. During this decade also,
the feudalist aristocracy transformed into a financial group.
The feudalist elite, merchants and businessmen united into one
class that stayed at the apex of the social hierarchy and worked
hand in hand with international capitalism.
OIL AND DEPENDENCY
Although oil production in the Arab world goes back to the
last century, the accumulation of revenues occurred only after
the price of oil was raised twice, in 1973 and 1979. The period
Democratic Palestine, October 1989
between 1973 and 1981 was characterized by accumulating
surplus in the budgets of the oil-producing states. Nine Arab
countries achieved a gross surplus of $323 billion. The surplus
of the Arab members of OPEC constituted 93% of the gross
surplus of OPEC, while four Gulf states alone accounted for
90% of the gross surplus of the Arab members in OPEC.
At the beginning of the accumulation, oil policy focused on
maintaining these revenues and limiting the extraction of oil.
This policy did not, however, withstand the challenges of the
next stage, the period between 1982 and 1987. This stage was
characterized by budget deficits, due to the fall in oil prices, as
a result of the policy followed by US imperialism and the oil
monopolies in conjunction with reactionary Arab regimes,
such as Saudi Arabia. This policy aimed to further subordinate
the Arab countries to the imperialist system, and to prevent
them from utilizing the oil revenues to consolidate their in-
dependence via the development process. The problem was
further aggravated by the competition among the OPEC states
over their respective shares in production, in order to receive
the highest income for dealing with the economic and social
consequences of the oil boom.
Most critical, however, was the way in which oil revenues
were used. The bulk of them were recycled into the capitalist
center - invested on stock exchanges or deposited in banks.
This diverted funds that could have been used for developing a
local productive capacity. It moreover made the Arab
economies vulnerable to the economic ups and downs in the
capitalist countries; it also increased the Arab states’
vulnerability to punitive political measures (as happened to
Iran when the US administration froze Iranian assests in the
US after the Shah’s overthrow). The policy of exporting the oil
revenues continues: During the first quarter of 1987, $2.43
billion were sent abroad from the Arab countries.
The oil boom has had far-reaching results on the economic
and social levels. Economically, the oil states depended solely
on producing and exporting oil. The increased oil revenues led
to a construction boom and the rapid expansion of infrastruc-
ture (transport and communication). There was also a begin-
ning development of social facilities (education and health).
Relatively speaking, the oil boom also affected the non-oil-
producing states. To varying degrees, they benefited from in-
comes in the form of aid and remittances from citizens working
in the oil states, although the prosperity was not so clearly seen
in all of them.
In the same period, the Arab states’ dependence on imported >
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