Abstract

North Africa (NA) includes the six Arab states of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, Tunisia and Sudan. In recent years, NA has attracted a great deal of attention. First, it was the birthplace of Arab nationalism and state-led development in the post-independence period. NA has also been the pioneer of market-oriented reforms in the Arab world after 1980. Finally, NA is the birthplace of the Arab Spring, which erupted first in Tunisia in late 2010 before spreading to the rest of the Arab world. This chapter focuses on factors affecting the choice of economic ideologies in relation to the evolution of economic policy, and the individuals/institutions behind such choices, throughout North African history.