LE RADICI ECONOMICHE DELLE SOLLEVAZIONI IN AFRICA SETTENTRIONALE

Francesco Macheda Roberto Nadalini

Articolo scaricabile qui: https://www.academia.edu/6685056/Le_radici_economiche_delle_sollevazioni_in_Africa_settentrionale__Macheda_e_Nadalini_2011

Abstract The economic roots of the mass insurrection in North Africa This article investigates the economic determinants of the mass uprisings that broke out in Tunisia and Egypt in the spring 2011, tracing them back to the crisis of globalization. Firstly, it analyzes the global fall in agricultural prices resulting from the liberal policies imposed by supranational capitalistic organizations to the periphery. While supporting agribusiness in the core countries, the liberalization strategy has nevertheless undermined the food auto-sufficiency in the peripheral ones. Secondly, the authors examine the triggering factors of the food crisis that hit North Africa in recent years, i.e. the energy-consuming bias of U.S. economy, on the one hand, and the acceleration of the price speculation on agricultural commodities in the aftermath of the subprime collapse in 2007, on the other. After having retraced the neoliberal restructuring in Egypt and Tunisia in part three, the final section inquires why and how the led-export regime of accumulation pursued by these economies must completely drop the food price inflations costs in their populations lap.

Keywords: political economy, economic imperialism, agribusiness, Egypt, Tunisia, food speculation, food security JEL classifications: F54, N55, P48, Q13