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2025 - Volume 9 - Number 2

Understanding the “Arab Socialism” in Egypt

Shmuel Lavi * ORCID: 0009-0005-2813-8102
South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Department of Political Science, Blagoevgrad, BULGARIA

Open Journal for Sociological Studies, 2025, 9(2), 73-86 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojss.0902.04073l
Received: 24 September 2025 ▪ Revised: 5 December 2025 ▪ Accepted: 25 December 2025

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:

The Arab socialism is a political ideology that combines Pan-Arabism and socialism. The influence of Arab socialism was in it pick on the 1950s and 1960s, while it was the ideologic basis of the Baʿath Party and less influential on Nasser’s movement in Egypt. This term should not be mixed with socialist thinking in the Arab world, which was fifty years before the Arab socialism. The socialism idea came to the Arab world by the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, about a hundred years after it was developed in France and in England. The term was first translated “Ajathmaaya” and then “Ashtrachia” that means cooperative, a meaning that is different from the western origin, therefore the name origin and its development should be examined first. The origin of the noun socialism is in the Latin word socialis – social. One of the most important designers of the socialist ideal is Karl Marx. Arab socialism rejects the anti-nationalist approach of socialism. However, the regimes that were supposed to strengthen the working class, create equality, and reduce gaps failed to reach the working class, and the situation of the poor did not improve, and in fact, the situation of the lower class and the fringe of the middle class did not improve. As the development of industry is minimal, so is the development of the proletariat and its weight in the general population and even among the urban population. In Egypt, the most developed of the Arab countries, the percentage of industrial workers did not reach 10% of the total urban population in 1958 (i.e. 6 years after the officers’ coup)! But we should not underestimate the power of the Arab Socialist Union (ASU) that was established (the Arab Socialist Union) and its influence (Nasser’s vision of pan-Arabism). The Six-Day War found the organization at the peak of its political and organizational power. Ali Sabri, who was the Secrein-General of the ASU in the two years preceding the war, managed to transform it from a bureaucratic organization lacking political influence into an organization with political and organizational capacity whose political influence was considerable.

KEY WORDS: Egypt, Egyptian politics, Ba’ath Party, Nazarism, Socialism.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:

Shmuel Lavi, South-West University “Neofit Rilski”, Department of Political Science, Blagoevgrad, BULGARIA.

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