Liberalizing Autocracies in the Gulf Region? Reform Strategies in the Face of a Cultural-Economic Syndrome

Brigitte Weiffen

World Development, 2008, vol. 36, issue 12, 2586-2604

Abstract: Summary From an international comparative perspective, the stability of autocratic regimes in the countries of the Gulf region is striking. This paper presents historical-cultural as well as economic explanations and proposes that the interaction of both factors constitutes a cultural-economic syndrome accounting for the persistence of authoritarianism. Macro-quantitative analyses demonstrate the significant influence of this syndrome, which operates through a mechanism of mutual reinforcement and substitution. Departing from this diagnosis, potential remedies are discussed: political and economic reform measures pursued in the 1990s are explored, and the Gulf monarchies are classified according to four ideal-typical combinations of reform strategies.

Keywords: Gulf; States; Islam; rentierism; authoritarianism; liberalization; economic; restructuring (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2008
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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