1978, the bureaucracy had swelled to 1.9 million souls, with another 1.3 million employed in government-owned corporations. [Egypt's 1979 population: 41 million.]
Overstaffing has reached monumental proportions: The Central Au- diting Agency, for example, has no fewer than 72 undersecretaries of state. Other "bureaupathologies," Ayubi notes, include inefficiency and poor performance. Only 15 percent of government employees regularly report to work on time. Cabinet ministers, whose tenures...