The Rise of Nasserism as an Institutional Change: Structure, Agency, Deterministic Paths, and Path Dependency

Abstract This paper investigates the emergence of Nasserism as a major institutional change in Egypt’s political economic development. It explores whether Nasserism was more likely the outcome of a deterministic path fostered by Egypt’s pre-1952 structural dynamics and interactions between institutional settings and external shocks? Or was it the outcome of actors’ agency and path-dependent development following a critical juncture? This research contributes to the literature on political-economic development and institutions by providing a theoretical understanding of the reasons underlying the emergence of different regimes. It also provides a novel analytical framework resting on a game-theoretical model. The paper suggests that Nasserism tended to be a state-corporatist political order that emerged because of phat-dependency, a less strict form of path-dependent development where timing of stages does not matter. Egypt’s pre-1952 institutional settings and the various external shocks it had experienced likely boosted Nasser’s political victory chances, yet, post-July 1952 Egypt could have gone on a different path, had important political contenders acted differently at this critical juncture of Egyptian history and political economic development.