EGYPT: MILITARY SOCIETY

This long, demanding study of Nasser's Egypt by an anti-doctrinaire Marxist deals only tangentially with policy toward Israel. Tearing off labels like ""nationalism,"" ""Arab socialism,"" and ""neutralism,"" it traces with formidable scholarship the internal dynamics of Egypt's monolithic state during the fifteen years since the Free Officers' coup. Abdel-Malek sees the power structure as a new managerial elite comprising military rulers and economic technocrats. He describes the sequence of infrastructural changes leading to their planned, state-capitalistic economy; social impact, ideological reconstruction and the quest for ""Arab unity."" Over-centralized decision--making has always characterized Egypt but now, in military hands, it drastically represses initiative. Nasser, concludes Abdel-Malek, wants ""socialism without socialists""; but economic progress and a truly popular state require political mobilization of the masses. First published in 1962, the book caused wide-ranging European debates. Serious students of Arab history and Third World development will be on the lookout for this expanded, updated version.