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Between the International Hammer and the Local Anvil: Municipal Elections in Saudi Arabia

(Jaffee Center for Strategic Studies-Tel Aviv University) Joshua Teitelbaum - The Saudi municipal elections, which began on February 10, have provoked glib predictions of "the first step on the road to democracy." Yet the elections represent simply another - and for the time being - successful coping mechanism for a skilled royal family that has ruled almost continuously for 250 years. Although similar elections were held in the 1950s and early 1960s, for most Saudis today, this is the first exercise in electoral politics in living memory. The elections created a space for a new kind of public activity. The Saudi decision to hold limited municipal elections is not a decision born of a commitment to the values of participatory politics but rather one more reactive step in a successful, age-old tradition of maneuvering between conflicting forces to stay in power. This maneuver, like others before it, is intended to preserve Saudi Arabia as a country appropriately named after a family.
2005-03-18 00:00:00
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