The arab economy today

The Arab Economy Today is a detailed account of the present economic situation of the Arab World. Samir Amin presents a wealth of statistical information to show how oil revenues are being spent, which economic sectors are developing, the allocation of skilled labour, the distribution of national income, and the region's patterns of external trade. He concludes that the oil-rich Gulf states are squandering their income to shore up the international monetary system; the more populous oil states are making little effective provision for the day when the oil runs out; and all of them are increasingly integrated into a dependent and subordinate position in the world capitalist system.
In short, Samir Amin argues that, given the existing class distribution of power in the Arab World, no real effort is being made to employ the massive oil revenues to open up an independent path towards a mature industrial economy in the Middle East. A major introductory essay to the book focusses on the vast number of Samir Amin's more empirical writings. Written by British sociologist Aidan Foster-Carter, who has specialized in the field of theories of underdevelopment, this essay introduces the reader to the scope and multiplicity of themes with which Amin has concerned himself during nearly 30 years of scholarly work.
A Complete Bibliography of Samir Amin's publications is also included. This specially compiled Bibliography is the first compre­hensive listing of all Amin's writings: books; articles and papers; theses and reports - as well as debates, critiques etc of Amin, in English and French, 1955-80. It is an invaluable guide to the massive corpus of Samir Amin's theoretical and empirical work.