IFI Panel Examines Political Economy of Arab World

Professor Marcus Marktanner

Economist Marcus Marktanner, at a March 13 panel held in West Hall, said that given the intransigent political systems in most Arab countries, the democratization prospects for the Arab world today are very slim. Organized by the Issam Fares Institute for Public Policy and International Affairs, the discussion was entitled "Can the Arab Region Have a Modern Political Economy? Lessons from the Rest of the World."

Marktanner is an assistant professor in the Department of Economics and a research fellow at the Institute of Financial Economics at AUB. He received his doctorate in economics from the Technical University of Ilmenau, Germany. Prior to joining AUB, he held teaching and research positions in Germany and the United States. His research concentrates on the relationship between political regimes and economic development.

Marktanner introduced the concept of political economy using Jean Jacques Rousseau's definition, which equates political economy with "a wise and legitimate governance of the house for the common good of the whole family." He added that while different political economies hold different criteria for fairness in terms of equal economic and employment opportunities, the "laissez-faire philosophy" is likely to fail in political economies in which the state is not involved in shaping the economy of the market.

"There is a need for a pro-active state that directs the economy and sends people to work. In Lebanon, for instance, the state assumes too little responsibility in controlling the market," Marktanner said.

Two AUB economics students, Lana Salman and Hania Bekdash, accompanied their professor on the panel. In fact, all three had co-written the research paper on which the discussion was based, and Marktanner referred to them as his "colleagues, not students or research assistants."

The panelists concluded that democratization in the Arab world is likely to fail without prior economic and political reforms, that a strategy for social mobility is essential for such reforms to unfold, and that democratization is ultimately a goal, not a means, of socioeconomic development.