Doing Business in the Middle East: Politics and Economic Crisis in Jordan and Kuwait

Examining relations between state authority and elite business representation in the Middle East, Pete Moore considers the examples of Kuwait and Jordan. He examines why organized business in Kuwait has been able to coordinate policy reform with state officials, while their Jordanian counterparts have generally failed, despite similar fiscal crises. Moore concludes that unleashing the private sector alone is insufficient to change current political and economic arrangements when established political infrastructures remain in place.