ABSTRACT
Saudi Arabia has been vulnerable to the popular uprisings that have swept the Arab world since December 2010 despite its propaganda machine that has presented the country as immune from these democratic movements in the wider region. 1 As Al-Rasheed argues, “Saudi Arabia is ripe for change. Despite its image as a fabulously wealthy realm with a quiescent, apolitical population, it has similar economic, demographic, social, and political conditions as those prevailing in its neighbouring Arab countries”. 2 Young Saudis, who make up the majority of the population, suffer high rates of unemployment and are frustrated at the way the wealth of the kingdom and its oil revenues are concentrated at the hands of the elites and the royal family. 3
