“Since December 2010, the wave of uprisings and protests across the Middle East has produced spectacular changes in the region’s authoritarian republics but has largely bypassed its autocratic monarchies” (Yom and Gause, p. 1). The most interesting aspect of this trans-national movement of uprisings is how it “has largely bypassed the autocratic monarchies”. In this paper, I will focus on how the Arab Spring affected two such autocratic monarchies: the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Bahraini public motivated and frustrated with the way things were went to the streets to protest in mass in February 2011 (Freedom House, Countries at a Crossroads, p. 1). Since this could potentially weaken the existing government, as it did in Egypt and Tunisia, the autocratic government of Bahrain saw the protests as a threat to their power and legitimacy and met the protesters with a brutal crackdown and further political repression. These protests and the subsequent violence did not, however, occur in Qatar. So, why did the Arab Spring affect the domestic stability of the oil-producing constitutional monarchy of the Kingdom Bahrain but not the oil-producing constitutional monarchy of the State of Qatar? Domestic stability here is defined as “the absence of large-scale violence in a country” (Nathan). Energy-rich countries that have recently changed from absolute monarchies to constitutional monarchies are more likely to suffer domestic instability if two things occur. First, that the profits from energy resources have declined and are unequally distributed among its citizens among other policies of sectarian-based economic discrimination. Second, that in the case of the religious minority monarchy that hold the political majorit...
... middle of paper ...
...es Department of State. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Bahrain. N.p., 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. .
United States Department of State. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor. 2013 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices - Qatar. N.p., 27 Feb. 2014. Web. 19 Mar. 2014. .
Yom, Sean L., and F. Gregory Gause. "Resilient Royals: How Arab Monarchies Hang On." Journal of Democracy 23.4 (2012): 74-88. Project MUSE. Web. 04 Mar. 2014. .
Zunes, Stephen. "Bahrain's Arrested Revolution." Arab Studies Quarterly 35.2 (2013): 149-64. JSTOR. Web. 04 Mar. 2014. .
US NGO Physicians for Human Rights Manual. Washington D.C.: US NGO Physicians for Human Rights, 2001. Print.
"United Human Rights Council." United Human Rights Council. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Nov. 2013. .
Schattuck, John. “Overview of Human Right Practices, 1995,” Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. March 1996: n.p. SIRS Issues Researcher. Web. 10 Oct 2013.
...2009): 8-9. United Nations Human Rights Council Universal Periodic Review. Web. 8 Apr. 2014. .
Hourani, Albert. A History of the Arab Peoples. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard UP, 1991. Print.
Early 2011 uprisings swept across the Middle East and North Africa, and many rebellions are still going on today. The Arab region has seen revolts and conflict since the 1800‘s, but only recently have these revolts been redirected to the problems of Arab society (Ghannam, J. 2011 pg 4-5)The Arab Spring Uprising was first sparked in Tunisia and eventually struck Algeria, Jordan, Egypt, Yemen and then spread to other countries. Citizens throughout these countries were dissatisfied with the rule of their local governments. Issues like human rights violations, political corruption, economic decline, unemployment, extreme poverty, dictators...
Ever the shrewd leader, Hussein realized that the primary way to ensure stability was to increase the standard of living. The fi...
As the Arab Spring enters its second year, major uprisings and revolts have occurred all over the Middle East, pushing for an end to the corrupt autocratic rule and an expansion of civil liberties and political rights. Most recently, images from Syria have emerged, depicting the government’s use of force to suppress the voice of its people. One might ask, “Is this the beginning of a revolution? Is the country on the path to democracy?” To assess this question and examine the future trends in the region, one must look back on the country’s somewhat tumultuous history, the relationship between the citizens and the state, and the political economy.
US Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor (2001) US Country Report on Human Rights Practices – Afghanistan http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2001/sa/8222.htm. Retrieved 03-11-09
Saudi Arabia, under Aristotle’s categorization, is an oligarchy even though Saudi Arabia has a monarch (King Abdullah). This is because the royal family, the descendants of King Abd Al-Aziz who died in 1953 leaving 40 sons (Raphaeli, 2003), has such a great sphere of influence in the governance and control of the country. This matches Aristotle’s definition of oligarchy as ‘the many’, the people, are ruled by ‘the few’, the Saudi Arabian royal family, with ‘the few’ benefiting and working in self interest (Heywood, 2007). This form of governance has major implications for the people of Saudi Arabia and its durability will be tested in the future, particularly in reference to the current upheavals occurring throughout the Middle East.
A successful country is one that has been through political battles and survived social hardships and today stands on its feet stronger than before. When mentioning countries that have been through challenges in shaping themselves, Qatar is a great example. Especially when it has created a prestigious name for itself in such a short time. The different aspects that shaped Qatar throughout history makes it a country worth writing about and studying in details. The variety of key highlights in the ancient, modern and contemporary history of Qatar are written with rich details in Allen Fromherz book Qatar- A Modern History. In this specific chapter "Qatar- A new Model of Modernity?", Fromherz discusses several grasping topics such as, the importance of the past history in today's modernity of Qatar, the role of expatriates, and Al Thani family's role in historic power. All of these shape the country today and play a vital role in the present modern society of Qatar.
The legal system in Qatar is combined of the civil law and the Islamic law. It is an attractive country to western visitors because it has a low potential to have crimes. The Qatari Government focuses on the truthfulness and transparency between the population and the business community. It pays its attention especially to the bu...
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Human Development Report (2000) Human Rights and Human Development (New York) p.19 [online] Available from: [Accessed 2 March 2011]
released political prisoners. These reforms gave Bahrain the highest rank in the Arab world on