Constitutional Reform and Political Participation in the Gulf

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The debate on political reform in the Gulf states has intensified dramatically in recent years. However, discourse on the topic is usually couched in terms of authoritarianism vs. democratisation. However, a more appropriate angle from which to view it, argues this new book, is in terms of the evolution of Gulf constitutions and the widening of political participation. The contributors demonstrate that constitutional reforms have so far served the purpose of consolidating the absolute power of the rulers but have also allowed the progressive development of institutions whose representative character and influence on the policy-making process has been growing. Political participation has considerably widened x2013; partly thanks to these new or strengthened institutions x2013; but even more so because of the increased access to information and freedom of expression brought about by the IT revolution. None of the Gulf regimes is truly democratic, and a long evolution will probably be necessary before they can be recognised as such. Nevertheless, this book demonstrates that real change is taking place and that prospects for political reform in the Gulf may even be better than in the rest of the Arab world.

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Abdulhadi Khalaf is Senior Lecturer in the Sociology of Development at Lund University and a specialist in the politics of the Gulf region.Giacomo Luciani is Professor of Political Economy at the European University Institute and is Professorial Lecturer in Middle East Studies at the Bologna Center of SAIS (Johns Hopkins University).