Description
This paper sets out to analyse the role played by regional development banks (RDBs) in consolidating neoliberal reforms in the European periphery. It does so by considering the pivotal role of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) in articulating neoliberal development strategies in post-communist transition and subsequently rearticulating them in Egypt’s ‘post-authoritarian transition’. The paper stems from the baffling scenario of why an ostensibly Eastern European institution is so intimately involved in bulwarking the neoliberal prerogatives of contemporary reforms in Middle East/North Africa (MENA)?
The paper focuses on how the EBRD helps perpetuate neoliberalising common sense among those populations who are least likely to be the beneficiaries of such reforms through the ‘Transition to Transition’ strategy developed by the EBRD for Egypt. It questions whether key policies, ideas, and guidance, first operationalised in post-communist transition are also being inculcated in the Egyptian transition through this strategy. The paper concludes by discussing the continuing and evolving commitment of reformers to neoliberalisation through the role of the EBRD in the refinement of reform strategies that maintain the disciplining power of capital over the population of Egypt.
