Social Contracts in the MENA – Drivers of Change

Event Type
Workshop

Location / Date
Bonn, 24.08.2022 until 26.08.2022

Organizer

German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS)

Aspirations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) to improve state-society relations predate the Arab uprisings in 2010-11 (e.g. Algeria 1991-2002, Iran 1998). However, developments after 2011 fell well short of meeting these aspirations in most MENA countries.

Considerable bodies of literature now use the social contract ‘lens’ for framing state-society-relations and its transformation. These include both, scholarly texts (Heydemann 2007, Regeni/Auktor 2017, McCandless 2018,) and development policy-guiding publications (World Bank 2004, OECD 2011, UNDP 2016). Loewe, Zintl and Houdret (2021) define them as the “entirety of explicit or implicit agreements between all relevant societal groups and the sovereign (i.e. the government or any other actor in power), defining their rights and obligations towards each other”. Typically, governments deliver protection (collective, individual and legal security), provision (social and economic benefits) and participation (in political decision-making). Citizens in turn accept the rule of the government and pay taxes.

Social contracts are not static. They are regularly renegotiated but most often, the contracting parties have either no reason to change their position or no leverage to see through such a change, and therefore reconfirm the existing contracts with just limited changes. But every now and then, long periods of path dependencies end abruptly and sometimes unexpectedly with a much more substantial change in the social contract. Apparently, this can be due to changes in the framework conditions (economic or health shock) or the intervention of powerful foreign actors (e.g. invasion or economic sanction). However, there is not yet much systematic research on the questions of which factors can bring about such change, and what potential less powerful actors have for driving a change in the social contract (For further information on the concept).

The German Institute of Development and Sustainability (IDOS) therefore held a workshop on 24-26 August 2022 in Bonn, Germany, to discuss methodological avenues – both qualitative and quantitative – and empirical insights to:

  1. identify drivers of contemporary transformations of social contracts in the MENA-region,
  2. assess the drivers’ respective contribution to change – both in ‘objective’ terms and in the perception of the social contract stakeholders,
  3. gauge the options of less powerful actors (e.g. vulnerable groups in society) to bring about change in social contracts.

 

Empirical contributions focused either on country-to-country or region-to-region comparisons (MENA included), on specific policy fields, or on the trajectory of specific social contracts over time.

Hinweis

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Event information

Date

24.08.2022 until 26.08.2022

Location

Bonn

Contact

Photo: Dr. Markus Loewe Senior Researcher, Research Programme “Transformation of Economic and Social Systems”

Prof. Dr. Markus Loewe
Senior Researcher, Research Programme “Transformation of Economic and Social Systems”

 

E-mailMarkus.Loewe@idos-research.de
Phone +49 (0)228 94927-154

Highlight

1-0 Introduction to workshop 220821

1-1 Loewe et al Framework drivers

1-2 Messkoub Sustainability-Soc-Contract

1-3 Zintl Houdret digital social contract

1-4 McCandless Inclusion as a driver of change-Tunisia

1-5 Leininger Loewe et al 2022 Soco and Soco

1-6 Nazli Attitudes in the MENA and West

2-1 Madi State-labor relations in Lebanon and Tunisia

2-2 Sabry Social Contract in Post-Revolution Tunisia

2-3 Houdret Furness Morocco social contract

2-4 Rutherford Hyperauthoritarianism Egypt

2-5 Shechter Social contract in Egypt 1991-2011

3-1 Sudermann Zintl-Revanchist social contract Syria

3-2 Al-Ashmar Exit Option and the new Social Contract in Syria

3-3 Abedtalas Entrepreneurship and social contracts

3-4 Abd Rabou Social contract in Libya

3-5 Benstead et al Social Contract in Southern Somalia

4-3 Anas Governance and social contract

4-4 Klinger Social contract in Oman

Ms 1-1 Loewe et al Framework drivers

Ms 1-2 Messkoub Social Contract-Sustainability and Social Policy-MENA

Ms 1-3 Zintl Houdret digital social contract

Ms 1-4 McCandless Inclusion as a driver of change-Tunisia

Ms 1-5 Leininger Loewe et al 2022 Soco and Soco

Ms 1-6 Bilgili Attitudes in the MENA and West

Ms 2-1 Madi State-labor relations in Lebanon and Tunisia

Ms 2-2 Sabry Social Contract in Post-Revolution Tunisia

Ms 2-3 Houdret Furness Morocco social contract

Ms 2-4 Rutherford Hyperauthoritarianism Egypt

Ms 2-5 Shechter Social contract in Egypt 1991-2011

Ms 3-1 Sudermann Zintl-Revanchist social contract Syria

Ms 3-2 Al-Ashmar Exit Option and the new Social Contract in Syria

Ms 3-3 Abedtalas-Refugees Entrepreneurships in Iraqi Kurdistan

Ms 3-4 Abd Rabou Social contract in Libya

Ms 3-5 Benstead et al Social Contract in Southern Somalia

Ms 4-1 Fathollah-Nejad Collapse of the IR of Iran s Social Contract

Ms 4-3 Anas Governance and social contract

Ms 4-4 Klinger Social contract in Oman