eight - From black hole to spring: the coming of age of social policy in the Arab countries?

Summary

Introduction

This chapter gives a broad overview discussion of social policy in the Arab region with the aim of arguing for its viability as a subject of academic study and its legitimacy as an arm of state policy and public intervention. The key units of analysis in the subject of social policy, such as social welfare, citizenship, equality, justice, poverty and rights, have never been more relevant than now, as mass political mobilisation grips Arab countries which have earned that region the bad reputation of being socially and politically backward (Jawad, 2009) – a situation captured figuratively by the image of a black hole (see also Jawad, 2009) where very little exists by way of coherent state social policy and any action towards social justice is thwarted by harsh political realities. Yet, regardless of the new wave of revolutions in the Arab countries and an apparent reawakening of government agencies to issues of social equality and justice across Arab countries where a popular uprising has not taken place, it is the fundamental egalitarian concerns of a politically engaged social policy research agenda that forms the basis of the arguments of this chapter. Indeed, research by the author spanning the last decade (Jawad, 2002, 2006, 2008, 2009) and others (Saeidi, 2004; Karshenas and Moghadam, 2006; Messkoub, 2006; Yakut-Cakar, 2007) attests to the validity of both a social policy analysis in the Arab region and to the question proposed in the title of this chapter, this being that we can now begin to speak of a coming of age of social policy studies and public interventions in the Arab countries.

But as the title also suggests, this issue is not couched in naive optimism. While it is already very plausible to study the mixed economy of welfare in the Arab countries and to examine the implications of state discourses for social development, it is important to remember that the Arab region is characterised by particular social and political structures that will no doubt influence the progression of political and social change that the region is seeing. For example, patrimonial, tribal, sectarian and clientelism structures have become deeply ingrained in this region, as have newer habits of modern consumerism.