Local Government in Egypt: Structure, Process, and the Challenges of Reform

The result of thirty years of field and library research, this comprehensive study reviews the current theory of local government in Egypt, its historical development, and future strategies for the relationship between the local and national systems of government.
Professor Mayfield assesses the dilemmas of administrative reform through processes of decentralization and democratization, suggesting ways in which social, economic, legal, and political changes create policy challenges that bear on fundamental issues of governmental legitimacy and stability. He analyzes these challenges and stresses the importance of local government in the processes of development, decentralization, and privatization. He also addresses the growing influence of the process of democratization and the role that local government can play. In taking up this issue, he notes that local government is where state and civil society meet - hence local government will be either a conduit for participation and democratization or an agent of political repression.
The book contains a wealth of information about the structure and functions of local government in Egypt, providing a detailed analysis of the ways in which it has functioned in the past and how it might be reformed if it is to be more effective in the future. Professor Mayfield concludes that a strengthened local government system may not only be a useful mechanism for confronting the challenges in Egypt's future, but may in fact be crucial.

James B. Mayfield is a professor of political science at the University of Utah.