Towards a New Understanding of Emirati and Gulf Politics

Abstract

This book set out to provide a framework for analyzing the political economy of a developing state with a small population relative to a large expatriate workforce, governed by a federation of tribal, hereditary rulers in a region rife with sectarian and resource-based conflict. It offers an institutional approach that is common in the literature examining cases of economic and political development, but focuses on the informal institutions that regulate elite behavior in policymaking. One of the key goals of the book is to normalize the Gulf and the predicament of oil-rich Arab Gulf states, to view these states with an appreciation for their means: how they govern, where their political institutions originate, how these institutions structure and limit dissent and how the state has transformed over time. The result is an analysis that is interested in traditional forms of authority, particularly variations of tribal rule, but not a focus on a concept of monarchy or authoritarianism. It is not intended to be apologetic for repressive mechanisms of rule; rather the idea has been to see the state for what it has achieved, and to acknowledge the great diversity of its social foundations and its sources of conflict, both domestic and international.