ABSTRACT
The immediate objective of this chapter is to assess the extent to which the reform measures mentioned in the last chapter have been successful. Behind this, however, there is a broader concern. Chapter 5 showed that, at the end of the 1990s, there remained many ways in which the Saudi political economy did not cohere with the developmental statemodel. Most importantly, it did not have the legal and regulatory framework which such a state required, and the leading circles in the private sector had little confidence in their ability to work effectively with the government. Since 2000, as has been shown in Chapter 6, substantial legal and regulatory changes have occurred. Most of these have been of the kind which leading elements in the private sector had wanted. The issue that arises from this, and which is the broader issue covered in the chapter, is whether the Saudi state now falls into the developmental state pattern. Besides acting as an assessment of the impact of the reform process, therefore, the chapter is also a conclusion to the book: a statement of the stage which Saudi political economy has reached, and its prospects for the future.
