CEU Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2021
| Author | Alajlouni, Laith |
|---|---|
| Title | "Loyalty vs. Voice:" What explains the divergent attitudes of the business elite toward democratization? The Case of Jordan |
| Summary | This thesis aims at examining the determinants of business elite behavior toward democratization. The literature on state-business relations and business elite political behavior shows a wide variability on how, when, and why the business elite support authoritarianism or democratic transitions. Some theories expect that the business elite could support democratic transitions in the absence of a prudent management of the economy, and with the decline of rents provided from the state. Also, some literature suggests that the business elite could support democratization in case they did not have concerns about possible populist movements. Within this context, this thesis examines the impact of “state-d ependencyȁ d; and “fear” on business elite behavior toward democratization. The Jordanian case is a most likely case that could inform us how business elite would behave in a context of declining rents, and poor economic performance and governance. Hence, the thesis will be trying to answer the research question: why did in the context of poor economic performance and governance and the decline of rents in Jordan the behavior of Jordanian businesses to support democratization vary? Why did some Jordanian businesses support democratization, while the other remained loyal to the illiberal incumbent? To answer this research question, I conducted five semi-structured interviews with Jordanian business elites to investigate under what conditions they will be more probable to push for democratic reforms or vice versa. Moreover, I analyzed official documents like Jordanian banks annual reports, the social security investment fund annual reports, government fiscal data, press releases, policy papers, and academic research papers. The thesis finds that that when a sector enjoys a higher level of dependence on the state, in addition to a higher level of fear from populist movements they become less pro-democratization and more loyal to the authoritarian regime. On the other side, low level of dependence on the state, and a low level of fear predicts that a business would be more pro-democratization. |
| Supervisor | Melnykovska, Inna |
| Department | Political Science MA |
| Full text | https://www.etd.ceu.edu/2021/alajlouni_laith.pdf |
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