MOHAMED EL SAYED SAID Egypt: The Dialectics of State Security and Social Decay BEITRÄGE/ARTICLES A s opposed to the»success stories« that became a meta-narrative in development literature, Egypt stands as a particularly sad example of »stories of failure«. By this latter category we mean countries whose performance fell drastically short of expectations aroused by early achieve­ments in the realm of culture and human develop­ment, or by their encouraging points of entry into »the modernity project«. For Egypt, the 20th century was almost a com­plete failure. At the beginning of the century, the country looked in relatively good shape and was seen as poised for economic take-off. In so many indicators, it was the country in the South that most fitted the model of robust transition to modernity. However, by the end of the century it was amply clear that many other countries that looked far behind it on the scale of development until the late 1950 s, have managed to leap forward, leaving Egypt much below on the scale of human and economic development as reported by the UN. A Society in Crisis In fact, the story is much more complicated than is read from indicators of economic failure or retreat. The country is in the midst of a comprehensive crisis which has led to a confusion about its very identity, future choices and destiny. Its poor achievements in the economic and social fields force Egypt to reflect on the causes of protracted failure and accordingly on the nature of the society that it aspires to create. Failure to achieve much on the road to moder­nity is perceived by many as an adequate warrant for questioning the relevance of»modernity« and its associated»culture of enlightenment«. Coun­ter-attack started as a critique to the concept of progress which furnishes the basis of modernity. Islamists expanded this critique to a universal assault on the type of society which the modernists strive to construct. The debate over the meaning of progress and the type of society also involved the»epistemic and moral foundations« of modern­ity as opposed to the model set by Islam. Aside from this, the whole debate was thoroughly soaked in the politics of identity. The politics of frustration and the search for meaning and self-fulfillment are rooted in the nexus of interactions with the West since the beginning of the colonial age. Foreign policies thus lie at the heart of the debate on the quality and nature of»strategic choices« or the type of society desired. Contradictory choices in the field of foreign policies represent the most confused and confusing issues of debate across the whole Arab world, with Egypt at the heart of it. At the close of the 20 th century though, it seems that Egypt may have escaped the destiny of some other Islamic societies that witnessed Islamic revolutions or coups. In fact, the bureaucratic elite is re-asserting itself in power against both Islamic and secular oppositions. An important factor is the exit ticket from the suffocating economic crisis of the 1980 s. The ruling elite has scored modest economic gains but these gains were very impor­tant politically. Successes are not made possible by arriving at radically higher levels of economic effi­ciency. In fact, the very continuity of these succes­ses is increasingly put in doubt. Hence, there are also big questions about the nature of the social and economic policy packages that need to be implemented to allow the country to take off. Better economic performance may have silenced the opposition to the dominant economic strategy. The nation is, however, far from settled as to the nature of the economy that it wants to establish. Naturally, the question of economic develop­ment is by no means isolated from the issue of de­mocratic reforms. Indeed, politics is another area of reversals and fundamental failures. The country IPG 1/2000 Said, Egypt: State Security and Social Decay 5