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Egypt’s Social Capital and Arab Economic IntegrationEgypt appears to havea considerablepotential stock ofsocial capital.case with cooperatives, trade unions andchambers of commerce. Thus, the figuresgiven in the table should be treated withcaution.A third measure of social capital in Egypt isthe cohesiveness of organizations. Indeed,there are signs of a lack of cohesiveness ineach category of organization (see Box 7.1).Disputes which fragment these organizations,have recently been particularly marked in afew. Lack of cohesion is a feature nowconspicuous in many organizations at alllevels. The reasons behind this requireresearch, but the phenomenon may havealways existed and become apparent inorganizations that are now more visible dueto their large membership, their role in thesocial and political life of the country, andtheir presence in Cairo.A fourth measure of social capital could bethe level of cooperation among these organizations.Several authors consider networking a betterindicator of the presence of social capital.There are indeed many cases of cooperationwithin each category of organization.However, such cooperation is not common,and usually of short duration.The fifth, and last, way of measuring socialcapital in Egypt is to examine the socialvalues that either foster or hinder collectiveaction by individuals. The highly respectableWorld Values Survey, undertaken by theUniversity of Michigan, did not include anydata on Egypt or, for that matter, on Arab orMuslim societies. This may be due to a lackof such data, and might require researchefforts at the local level.In conclusion, Egypt appears to have aconsiderable potential stock of socialcapital. However, it may not be put to thegood use suggested by the inflated figureson cooperatives, civic societies and politicalparties. Further, membership in associationsof all types is presently low or inactive dueto a perceived lack of internal cohesiveness,or to conflicts with the government thathave led to the suspension of activities. Thisis the case for most professional associationsthat had their elections suspended for nearlyhalf a decade during the 1990s. It is aBox (7.1)Cohesiveness of Social Capital Organizations In EgyptWith regard political parties, a number ofmembers of Egypt’s National DemocraticParty (NDP) contested the elections of thePeople’s Assembly (PA) in October-November 2000 as independents. In manycases they competed against the officialcandidates of their party, despite warningsby the party leadership that not abiding byparty discipline would be held against them.These warnings were later disregarded bythe same leadership, who, following theirvictory, hastened to reintegrate theindependents into the party parliamentarygroup. The party was therefore able to retaina parliamentary majority with the support ofthese undisciplined “floating” members.Regarding Egypt’s professional associations,major internal disputes have marked therecent history of some of the most importantof these. The cause of the disputes variedfrom one association to the other, being thevalidity of electoral procedures in somecases, such as the Syndicate of Engineers, ormanagement of funds, as in the case of theBar Association (BA). The BA in particularwas the stage for several internal disputesthroughout the 1980s and the 1990s, beforethe government took advantage of thesequarrels to order the sequestration of theassociation in 1996.Finally, within civic societies, the mostimportant internal disputes were those thattook place within the Egyptian Human RightsOrganization in the 1990s, particularly in1991. On the occasion of the election of theExecutive Committee of the organization, onefaction used questionable tactics in order toobtain a majority, thereby getting rid ofanother faction that had been its partner inestablishing the organization in 1987. Similardisputes related to electoral procedures werealso reported in some of the most exclusivesports and recreational clubs in Cairo.Business organizations did not escape suchaltercations either, with the Cairo Chamber ofCommerce paralyzed in 1998-9 by an internaldispute that was resolved only through theintervention of the Minister of Supply.106 -Egypt Human Development Report 2000/2001