faced with contradictions in financing, representation and legitimacy. These contradictions worsened particularly after the January 2011 revolution and are rooted in the exacerbation of the public finance crisis. As rentier resources decline, there is an increased need to generate more tax resources, which, in turn, necessitates greater political representation. That political representation contradicts the authoritarian nature of the model and threatens its patronage networks. This forced it to adopt a self-contradictory “develo-political” model, which increases involuntary collection mechanisms to compensate for the financial deficit (and resolve the contradiction of financing and representation) and attempts to strengthen and restructure its patronage networks through exhibitional development that is financially costly and economically ineffective. The result was negative social resistance represented by a decline in private investment and a rise in the tendency toward hoarding, speculation and escape from the national currency through dollarisation, all of which weakened both the economy and the currency. Keywords: Egypt, Egyptian pound, US dollar, dollarisation, tyranny, cronyism, 25 January revolution.
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