What impact has bureaucracy on the democratic transitions in post-revolutionary Tunisia and Egypt?

            From vibrant, transitional, fragile and failed states, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is still witnessing the most challenging political, social, and economic turmoil that is also affecting the whole world. Between the biggest refugee crisis since World War II (Edwards 2017)  and terrorist attacks, the spark of hope in the region remains to target the two countries that successively inspired the waves of the revolutions in 2011 - Tunisia^[1] and Egypt.

(c) The Washington Institute

“Employment, Freedom, National dignity!” shouted thousands of Tunisians on the morning of the 14^th of January 2011 in the central Avenue of Habib Bourguiba in Tunis. This slogan represented the most popular demands that emerged to end a system of twenty-three years of unemployment, dictatorship, and extended economic, political, and social embargoes. Eleven days after, Egyptians took the Tahrir Square in Cairo and chanted “Bread, Freedom, Social Equality!” joining the wave of the democracy waves – later described – the Arab Spring.  The popular expectations of countering dictatorship in Tunisia and Egypt did not solely cover starting a democratic regime in its popular apprehension of free transparent elections. The demands calling for democracy also inquired to revolutionize the countries’ system of governance and its public administration. 

By definition, public administration can be defined - but not limited to -  the diversity of the practices, structures, and procedures guiding governments administer the affairs of state in the context of their governance frameworks. ( Dixon, Bhuiyan & Üstüner 2018) One of the most known forms of public administration structure is bureaucracy. The word bureaucracy itself emerged from Western Europe in 1764 where it was defined as “Power, the influence of the heads and staff of governmental bureau.” Then, the concept developed to cover the organizational practices to coordinate work in large public and private administrations using qualities as hierarchy and rules. (New World Encyclopedia) This includes the way that policies and rules are implemented, tasks are executed, and the approach that large-scale institutions coordinate the work of their personnel. In this paper, bureaucracy will be used to describe the complex structure of government administration that is carried and managed by departments staffed with non-elected officials.
            This paper will review previous studies and personal experiences’ records to evaluate the impact that bureaucracy has on the democratic transition in Tunisia and Egypt. This will be implemented using three of the most significant factors that the MENA revolutions called for in order to ensure a democratic transition: Citizen-bureaucrat relationship, employment, and democracy.

The citizen-bureaucrat relationship

The structured and organized interface of bureaucracy as the heart of public administration in modern societies is usually expressed as efficient to ensure adequate allocation of resources and budgets. Bureaucracy was also established to enforce discipline, rules and authority structures. If not bound by the bureaucratic laws, bureaucrats should face discipline for insubordination. In his opus magnum “Economy and Society” Max Weber states that ”[…] the exercise of authority consists precisely in administration.” (Weber 1978: 220) Ideally, the efficient system-based characteristic of employing an increasing population of bureaucrats was praised to serve the need of complex societies. However, this system has also attracted a number of controversies around the gap it creates between citizens and bureaucrats. Bureaucrats are unelected employees whose power is usually criticized to be abused and, in some cases, corrupt. For example, in Tunisia, the establishment of bureaucracy came and brought its social entitlement that allowed the bureaucratic network to enjoy certain privileges in the society. This is what increasingly turned the public administrations to be described as archaic plethoric, asthenic, hierarchical, bulimic. (Ben Ammar 2017)

 An administrative authorization or a signature might make you wait for over a week or two if you do not hand a 10 Tunisian Dinar bill to the administrative assistant behind the window. This does not only encourage citizens to utilize bribes to get their paperwork done, it also depresses growth and the sense of innovation in the society. (Goedhuys, Mohnen & Taha 2016) According to the Global Innovation Index 2015 (Cornell University, INSEAD and WIPO 2015), the ranking of the MENA countries is as low as 141st for Sudan, 137th for Yemen and 100th for Egypt and 76th for Tunisia.^[2] Since 2010, demonstrations in the interior regions of Tunisia, specifically in Sidi Bouzid^[3], were led by The Union of Unemployed Graduates (UDC), the Tunisian General Labor Union (UGTT), and the Tunisian League of Human Rights (LTDH) marched on several occasions to the governorate headquarters. Serious demands boldly asked to launch a war against bureaucracy because of its centralized structured in the capital. (Szakal, V. 2016)

All in all, for large populations like Egypt’s 100,861,163 million people, (United Nations Estimates 2019) has proved to have a number of achievements to its credit in terms of setting up regulatory instruments of development under Jamal Abd El-Naser. But by the expansion of bureaucratic public administration in the Sadat era until this day, a general breakdown in performance and discipline in the public service has resulted an increasing failure to have citizens’ trust the public sector.^[4]

Employment: Between too much and not enough.

Since bureaucracy usually governs medium to large organizations, the size of the public sector under a bureaucratic basis tends to be often too large. Administrations are often populated by unelected officials whose contracts cannot be easily done. Although such systems employ a large number of citizens, bureaucratic public administrations can drain government resources especially for countries with modest economies.  In Tunisia, bureaucracy employs over 850,000  public bureaucrats who constitute more than 8,5 percent of the country’s population and more than 15% of the GDP. (Ben Ammar 2017) That is almost the same ratio as Egypt in a country almost one-tenth the size and three-times a country with the same population as Greece. (Ibid) These rates are considered alarming for a country that is trying to survive the increasing rates of unemployment and citizens’ expectations.

On the other hand, for the Egyptian case, starting from 1986, bureaucracy has not stopped its expansion following its Open Door Policy (infitah), which helped to generate more employment opportunities for over thirteen million labor force in diverse public sector institutions. (Ayubi 1989) Nowadays, Egypt's public bureaucracy has an enormous establishment encompassing at least thirty ministries and hundreds of public agencies and companies^[5]. However, the heavy system that millions of people are benefitting from, made reforms very challenging because of its potentially high cost and time-consumption.

The aforementioned “achievements” that are usually praised by former and current bureaucrats working for the state, turned a blind eye to a crucial aspect, which is the improper distribution of public staff among various ministries and department. This need for an effective and efficient labor force in the public administration has been always recognized by governments of both countries.

Back to the Tunisian case, the increasing reports that saw the light after the Revolution exposed how the bureaucrats’ high salaries, expenditure, and operating cost are still feeding the privilege of employees who have been occupying the same positions for years. (Ben Ammar 2017) This what leaves little room for youth with up-to-date qualifications to integrate positions in the state’s major institutions.
An example can be drawn from the testimony of a victim of the bureaucratic system in Tunisia. (Szakal 2016)

“Our determination to face the system of corruption and dictatorship, of the contemptible centralization committed by the bureaucracy which has marginalized our region for years and which is trying once again to exclude us from development and employment programs;

The continuation of our peaceful struggle to impose the social question in general and employment in particular as an absolute priority.”

 -Wajdi Khadraoui, Spokesman for the sit-inners at governorate headquarters, Kasserine.

Democracy. Are we there yet?

Democracy; such a simple yet complexed term that literally means rule by people. It is a system of governance where the citizens exercise power by voting. It is also the ultimate incentive that made people starve and believe in the possibility of decentralizing power from the national to the local level after over fifty years of dictatorship in a small Northern country called Tunisia. Eight years after the uprising, citizen’s emotional and shocking statements can still summarize how the transitional governments who took power since 2011 have failed to anchor possible milestones to reach democracy.

“The only things [that have] changed are the names of the streets. They used to be [called] November 7^[6], now they are [called] December 17^[7].”

- Wajdi Khadraoui.

For the most common public opinion, democracy cannot and will never be achieved with a heavy bureaucratic system that the country has. Bureaucrats, among whom the majority have been employed since the times of Ben Ali, now feel more comfortable expressing their nostalgia to the bon vieux status quo under Ben Ali. Similar statements that pop up with every crisis that the country experiences represent some of the most appalling barriers against a successful democratic transition.

Nonetheless,  Tunisia's continuous struggle to get to democracy is still considered a better case then what Egypt is currently experiencing. Unfortunately, the Egyptian current regime is utilizing the channels he has within the public administrations to serve his own needs based on nepotism^[8], cronyism^[9]. (Noll 2019) Since getting the presidency, Al Sisi’s continuous salary raises to members of the army made it even harder to expect any spark of hope in the near future. On papers, just like all the dictators that proceeded him, Al-Sisi made sure to restrict any agencies like the Administrative Control Authority (ACA) to overview or questions the military whose expanding economic role lacks transparency, which encourages mismanagement or even corruption. (Ibid)

Conclusion:

The willingness of the people, which was able to topple two of the strongest dictators of the region, is still struggling to realize the development they revolted for. The dysfunctional system inherited from years of colonization remains a hurdle to improving the system of governance and achieving the Arab spring’s demands. However, can bureaucracy be considered as a totally failed system? To some extent, bureaucracy’s success in post-revolutionary countries like Tunisia and Egypt requires strong and right-sized institutions to effectively implement adequate policies and deliver public services while sustaining cooperation between civil societies and sustainable accountability organisms. A great example can be the case of Malaysia where reforms to public bureaucracy conducted in the 1990s have changed the whole present and future of the country. Malaysia’s successful forms highlighted three broad areas, financial administration based-computerized accounting, service delivery system and personnel management (new remuneration system). (Siddiquee & Mohamed 2007)

This paper considered findings depicted from both countries to study the impact of bureaucracy on the democratic transition in the period between 2010 and 2019.

References:

A. Cook, S. (2016). Tunisia: On the Road to Nowhere. Retrieved from https://www.cfr.org/blog/tunisia-road-nowhere
Ayubi, N. N. (1989). Bureaucracy and development in Egypt today. Journal of Asian and African Studies, 24(1-2), 62-78.

Ben Ammar, A. (2017). Tunisie : Alléger le fardeau bureaucratique et moderniser l’État! - Kapitalis. Retrieved from http://kapitalis.com/tunisie/2017/09/22/tunisie-alleger-le-fardeau-bureaucratique-et-moderniser-letat/

Bureaucracy - New World Encyclopedia. Retrieved from https://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Bureaucracy

Dixon, J., Bhuiyan, S., & Üstüner, Y. (2018). Public Administration in the Middle East and North Africa. Retrieved from https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/citedby/10.1080/01900692.2018.1433207?scroll=top&needAccess=true

Edwards, A. (2017). Forced displacement worldwide at its highest in decades. Retrieved from https://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2017/6/5941561f4/forced-displacement-worldwide-its-highest-decades.html

Egypt - The Bureaucracy. Retrieved from http://countrystudies.us/egypt/112.htm

Goedhuys, M., Mohnen, P., & Taha, T. (2016). Corruption, innovation and firm growth: firm-level evidence from Egypt and Tunisia. Eurasian Business Review, 6(3), 299-322.

Guetat, I. (2006). The effects of corruption on growth performance of the MENA countries. Journal of Economics and Finance, 30(2), 208-221.

http://dergipark.gov.tr/download/article-file/211469 (Ref)

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/01900692.2018.1433207?needAccess=true

Noll, J. (2019). Report – Fighting Corruption or Protecting the Regime? Egypt's Administrative Control Authority. Retrieved from https://pomed.org/report-corruption-egypts-administrative-control-authority/

Siddiquee, N. A., & Mohamed, M. Z. (2007). Paradox of public sector reforms in Malaysia: A good governance perspective. Public Administration Quarterly, 284-312.

Szakal, V. (2016). Peaceful protests continue throughout the country. Retrieved from https://nawaat.org/portail/2016/01/25/peaceful-protests-continue-throughout-the-country/

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^[1] http://www.worldbank.org/en/region/mena/overview

^[2] From a micro perspective, firms from MENA have the least performance in innovative activities. The

region has an average capacity utilization of 62.7 %, a net decrease of labour productivity of 10.5 % and

only 5.4 % of firms are using a technology licensed from a foreign company, compared respectively to

72.2, 2.9 and 14.8 % for the worldwide average. Source: Enterprise Surveys. The World Bank

^[3] The town where Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire which resulted the Tunisian Revolution.

^[4] Egypt - The Bureaucracy. Retrieved from http://countrystudies.us/egypt/112.htm

^[5] Ibid

^[6] The Coup d’Etat that Ben Ali declared that led to assuming the Presidency of Tunisia on 7 November 1987

^[7] The date when the first sparks of the Tunisian revolution started.

^[8] Nepotism is the granting of favor to relatives in various fields, including business​, politics, entertainment, sports, religion and other activities

^[9] Cronyism is the practice of partiality in awarding jobs and other advantages to friends, family relatives or trusted colleagues, especially in politics and between politicians and supportive organizations