International Political Economy - Middle Eastern and North African Countries

POL4401 – INTERNATIONAL POLITICAL ECONOMY
FINAL EXAM
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Answer the following questions
Why was the MENA (Middle Eastern and North African countries) unable to compete with Europe? Explain your answer by considering discussions and examples in the online lectures. (50 points).
There is lack of .lack of separation and religious and state in MENA (Middle Eastern and North African countries), which is one reason for weak institutional powers and effectiveness. Majority of the people in MENA) are Sunni Muslims, with exception of Israel with a Jewish majority, while are have Iran, Iraq, and Bahrain have s Shi’ite majorities (Balaam & Dillman, 2016)
MENA mostly encompasses the Arabic speaking countries in the region, but also Iran, Israel, Turkey and the Palestinian Territories (Balaam & Dillman, 2016). Europe was more open to free trade and international markets, which improved the region’s competitive capacity where there were diverse exports.
There is cultural immobilism and poorly diversified economies in the MENA region .While there are diversified exporters like Israel, Turkey, Tunisia, Israel, Jordan and Lebanon, the economies of the MENA region are heavily dependent on oil or agriculture (Balaam & Dillman, 2016). There are different levels of development with the oil producing countries Gulf Cooperation Council and Libya having high per capita incomes, while Syria, Yemen have low per capita incomes and high rural poverty levels (Balaam & Dillman, 2016).The lack of economic diversification makes these economies uncompetitive, and this is further worsened by high poverty rates and inequality unlike Europe where productive and institutional competition led to pro-growth policies.
The lack of political freedom and stability weakens competitiveness investments in the region. Furthermore, twentieth-century colonialism exploited the regions with European influence still having a lingering influence in domestic affairs in the post-independence era (Balaam & Dillman, 2016). Freedom House only ranks Israel as the only “free” country in terms of political freedom a few are partially free, but the regional countries are associated with political repression...