As I understand this excellent article (reading a translation of the original), the respected author is arguing that a dictatorial regime cannot be toppled because of economic collapse. As long as the ruler has access to the instruments of state violence (the police, army, intelligence, etc), the population will be too afraid to rise up in revolution against him, even though they are living in dire poverty and oppression. He states that even if the Egyptian economy collapses, the government will continue to find ways to extort money from the people so that the regime can stay in power. This is what I understand from the article.
The negation of poor people rising up in revolution has some obvious and notable exceptions; the French revolution, for example; the Iranian revolution, the American revolution, and even the revolutions of the Arab Spring were all essentially driven by socio-economic dissatisfaction, and were waged against regimes that were not particularly weak. But still, the theory seems sound.
It is important to point out, however, that in the modern Empire of Capital, it is, in fact, the dictator’s job to collapse the domestic economy. That is Neoliberalism in a nutshell. The entire raft of macroeconomic policies demanded by the international business community is a very well thought out recipe for destroying an economy, leaving it completely vulnerable and defenseless for the benefit of multinationals and foreign investors. The imperial definition of a dynamic economy is an economy that has successfully crippled itself beyond any hope of self-sufficiency.
The “strength of the ruler’s palace” depends exclusively upon the ruler’s ability to carry out his institutional function within this imperial system. His duties include channeling public funds into the hands of foreign investors, undermining domestic competition for multinationals, increasing their market share and profitability, and terrorizing the population.
This is vital to understand because it means that toppling a dictator will not relieve the suffering of the people. This should be perfectly clear particularly to Egyptians. In an imperial system, rising up in revolution against a dictator is a misdirection.
The revolution must be a revolution against the imperial system itself; a revolution for independence. The targets of revolutionary action should not be the limbs of the state, but rather the institutions of real power and control; the apparatus of the imperial system. That means multinational corporations, financial institutions, and the interests of foreign investors.
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