Leadership and collective action in the Egyptian trade unions

Anne Alexander
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Anne Alexander: School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, aa107@soas.ac.uk

Work, Employment & Society, 2010, vol. 24, issue 2, 241-259

Abstract: This article explores leadership and collective action in the Egyptian workers’ movement since the 1940s, with a focus on the competition between different models of leadership. It argues that leadership is a dialogical process, and distinguishes between two models of leadership — bureaucratic and democratic — which sit at opposite ends of a spectrum of reciprocity between ‘leaders’ and ‘led’. Although such developments are as yet embryonic, the emergence of a democratic model of union leadership, rooted in the particular forms of collective action adopted by Egyptian workers during the post-2006 strike wave, presents the most significant challenge to the dominance of the bureaucratic model since the creation of the current union federation in the 1950s.

Keywords: bureaucratic leadership; collective action; democratic leadership; Egypt; Egyptian workers; strikes; trade unions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:woemps:v:24:y:2010:i:2:p:241-259

DOI: 10.1177/0950017010362144

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