Exploring the Role of New Middle Class in Egypt's Social Movement

Increasing economic woes and pressures exerted from international organizations forced Egyptian presidents Sadat and Mubarak to adopt economic neo-liberal policies. To realize these policies, educating professionals by universities was necessary. This led to the development of higher education in Egypt necessitating the expansion of modern communications instruments. Sadat and Mubarak, in fact, expanded anew middle class with growing influence. This article tries to examine the role played by the new middle class in Egypt's social movement? The authors advance the hypothesis that the most important actors in the formation and continuation of Egypt's social movement were the declining middle class which resumed its growth by adopting open market policies. These policies did not make the middle class (in its western concept) more powerful; rather they strengthened the declining middle class enjoying cultural, political and economic status. As a result, leading to a social movement that demanded freedom and justice and improvement of economic and political status represented by the declining middle class/