The Road to Liberty: Defending Economic Freedom in Post-Mubarak Egypt

As Egypt turns to democracy, we are facing the twofold problem of an extant legal framework that, despite aggressive reforms in the past few years, remains way too restrictive for a truly free market to emerge; and a public attitude that is hostile to economic freedom. To deal with this problem, this project was designed with a realistic approach that acknowledges the need to ultimately influence legislation but realizes that this would be impossible without solid social foundations for the principles of economic freedom. Focusing on the core values of "Private Property" and "Free Competition", the project sets out with a phase of legal and economic research: analyzing the laws in question, advancing the arguments for their change and identifying the groups most likely to adopt such argument, then moves to a phase of campaigning both to specific interest groups and to the general public. The backbone of the project consists of 4 policy papers on the most important topics of private property (Ownership Rights and Litigation – Intellectual Property) and free competition (Market Regulation – State Monopolies and Privatization), each to be used as the foundation for publicity materials (Simplified Brochures – One-Minute Videos) and campaign activities (Conferences – Meetings with Interest Groups – Meetings with MBs). While we hope that this project will help improve the legal environment for economic freedom in Egypt, we consider the immediate contribution of the project to be of greater importance, with regard to establishing solid grounds for free-market policy research on the one hand, and creating a community of pressure groups that are capable of pursuing economic reform in a democratic context.